Health Teams International DR Trip

A story from one of our patients!

Health Teams International were set up in a building in Cabarete, DR that had started to be built as a funeral home. There was no running water for much of the time ! People started lining up at 6am for the doors to open at 9am for the free medical, vision and dental treatment.

I treated over 120 adults and children in 5.5 days and performed debridement of plaque and tartar deposits and oral hygiene education with the help of a translator. I was very happy to have my husband Eric to help; he is a Commercial Real Estate Broker with Royal LePage and he was a great assistant and oral health educator!! People were very grateful and most had never had dental treatment of any kind before. One 67 year old lady was a smoker with all of her teeth and surprisingly caries free, however had a tremendous amount of stain and deposits. I was VERY thankful for a Titan sonic scaler! The first day and a half I had no power tools as the power was so unreliable it caused the portable compressor to overheat. Thankfully that was sorted out by hooking it up to a gas generator for the week. I had occasion to see the very first patient I treated at the end of the week and was encouraged by the improvement in his tissue health. He was very happy to have less bleeding in his mouth.

The Health Teams International Team of 2 physicians, 2 nurses, 2 dentists, a dental assistant, a vision expert, many helpers and 1 dental hygienist was able to treat over 1500 people over the 5.5 days. Any who wish to donate to any of Dr Harle’s charities can do so through the link below. Not only is he the President of Health Teams International. Dr Harle is also the Director of the Ottawa Mission Dental Clinic as well as Founder of PODS (Portable Ottawa Dental Service) providing free dental services to pregnant teens on the streets of Ottawa.

http://www.tomharle.com/charitable-dental-organizations/health-teams-international-canada/