Crew of dental office makes mission trip to Dominican Republic
The shifts eight staff members of Keelan Dental took on in March were more intensive than usual — dozens of children needed tooth extractions and even more children had not brushed their teeth for a long time.
Those shifts took place in an RV parked at Villahermosa in the Dominican Republic, and the patients were hundreds of children who don’t have access to regular dental care or even dental equipment like toothbrushes.
Eight staff members from Keelan Dental traveled to the Dominican Republic on a mission trip through My Eternal Refuge, an organization founded in 2005 by Butler native Dr. William DiCuccio.
This year’s trip to the Dominican Republic was the second go-around for Kendall Christie, a dental assistant at Keelan Dental, and she said it was still eye-opening to see the conditions of the people living in Villahermosa, a city of about 117,500.
“I think what surprised me was the desperate need for dental care there. I think it was kind of a shock how much need there is there,” Christie said. “There was a lot of hygiene appointments we did, cleaning their teeth. We did exams, brushed their teeth and did fluoride.”
DiCuccio said there are more than 400 children in a Christian grade school, a church, a water purification plant and a medical clinic in Villahermosa, which all were included in efforts through My Eternal Refuge. Over the years, the organization has created infrastructure for medical care for children and adults in Villahermosa, which has enabled provision of care for numerous locals there.
“Dental and eye exams are the biggest things there,” DiCuccio said. “We’ve seen over 5,000 people.”
The eight staff members from Keelan Dental went to the Dominican Republic March 1 and stayed for seven days in a camp in La Romana, a city near Villahermosa.
Dr. Elizabeth Blaisse, a dentist at Keelan Dental, said the villa she stayed at with the rest of her group was filled with many other U.S. missionaries. She said the group of dental staff members got up early every day of the trip and traveled to Villahermosa to set up to treat potentially hundreds of patients. The staff would treat mainly children, who would also stay around the treatment site throughout each day.
“We get ready for the day, and we get on a bus or van to get to the place we were going, which was a community we were serving,” Blaisse said. “We would play with the kids a little bit, then get things set up for the day in our dental RV.”
Blaisse said the clientele the dentistry pros saw in Villahermosa was in large part in desperate need of tooth extractions. Over the course of the week, the crew saw about 400 children, and about 60 of them needed extractions.
“These kids don’t have access to regular cleanings and fluoride,” Blaisse said. “(We were) trying to provide whatever we could, mainly extractions, because that’s all we could provide in the moment. Their teeth are usually too far gone for a typical cleaning.”
The March trip was Blaisse’s first to the Dominican Republic for My Eternal Refuge. She said the trip took a lot more prep work than she anticipated, but the planning made it easier for the team once they were on their way, as well as while they performed the work there.
“It was eye-opening how much they did,” Blaisse said of the preplanning. “I think it really opened the door to do it more.”
While the crew regularly pushed past the typical eight-hour U.S. workday during the trip, Christie said they also got some leisure and fun time with the children, as well as with each other. She said even though the children didn’t speak English, and the crew didn’t have a wide knowledge of Spanish, the interactions between the two were still positive and involved physical displays of affection.
“We worked Monday through Wednesday in Villahermosa, all day,” Christie said. “The kids themselves, households like they were, you can’t really communicate with them. They come up and give you a hug. At the end of the week they performed a song and dance and it brought us all to tears.”
Although the only parts of the country the Keelan Dental crew saw were in Villahermosa and the camp in La Romana, Blaisse said she enjoyed the trip and is looking forward to going back to the Dominican Republic on another mission trip.
She said the visit cemented her hopes to be an international dentist.
“I did do a mission trip when I was in dental school. That was a great experience, and I always wanted to do something again,” Blaisse said. “It’s something I want to continue to do throughout my career, serve people in other countries.”
Christie echoed Blaisse’s sentiment, and said she wants to continue bringing health care to other countries through her career.
“Being in health care, your goal is to help people who need it,” Christie said. “I would love to do it again, I would go there every year. The people are great, everyone is super welcoming, friendly, and I love helping people.”
Even though she researched the Dominican Republic ahead of the trip, Blaisse said the conditions the locals lived in were still a shock. However, the work environment was positive, and the children were “so full of life” even through the treatment, according to Blaisse.
Christie recalled the group’s last day in the country, which they got to spend with the people they served. The locals came prepared with a song and dance for the dentists, which was more than enough thanks for the crew, Christie said.
“Our last working day at the school they were super appreciative and put on this performance and all started singing and I cried,” Christie said.
Blaisse also said the performance was emotionally moving, which helped bond the dentists with the children they helped, as well as with one another.
“That was memorable, and being a part of our team itself. The eight of us, we had a great time together, not just serving the people but being there together,” Blaisse said.
Christie said the trip helped her form closer bonds with her co-workers, thanks to the long days spent in the Dominican Republic all working toward the same goal of giving children dental care.
“It's hard to spend time with your co-workers in a work setting, getting out I feel like we were able to make friendships,” Christie said. “We became really close and I'm glad we had the experience.”
