Dental Care - San Jose Partners

Introduction

Dental care in the San Jose area is essentially non-existent. Accessing the nearest dental care would require a 1-3 hour hike, a one hour bus ride, and $5 cost per tooth pulled. In other words, dental care does not exist in San Jose. Whenever possible we bring a dentist as part of our group. The dentist is by far the busiest member of the team in San Jose. San Jose people can go months in terrible pain given there are no local options. During the Covid pandemic some people had to go two years in pain without access to dental care.

Curative Dental Care

In the early years of our Program our dental team could just offer tooth extractions done on the porch of a building with the patient sitting in a plastic lawn chair. Although conditions are still primitive compared to a modern dental office in the US we have an air compressor with dental drill, a portable dental chair, suction, and a rolling stool for the dentist. In addition to extractions the dentists can do some restorative work, a technique unheard of in San Jose. Most people assume if there is a problem with a tooth it needs to come out. We are slowly educating them that sometimes teeth can be repaired.

First dental “office” was a lawn chair on a porch and sunlight

Preventive Dental Care

As with medical interventions, the most effective long-term dental interventions we can do involve prevention of future dental problems. Near the start of our work in San Jose, we introduced a fluoride rinse program. This involved school children twice a week swishing around in their mouths a fluoride solution we provided. It was being done at the schools by the teachers. Studies we did pre and post intervention showed a significant reduction in dental caries in school children. Over time though the teacher’s ability to complete the twice weekly rinse intervention fell to more pressing other problems. We then switched to fluoride varnishing school children’s teeth every six months. Although not as effective as the fluoride rinse program when done correctly, the fluoride varnish works much better than no fluoride treatment.

Dental education and providing dental supplies whenever possible are other interventions we provide on a regular basis. Many San Jose residents cannot afford tooth brushes and definitely not tooth paste. They also lack knowledge about basic dental care and dental facts. We use various educational interventions to improve the population’s knowledge about caring for their teeth. Most education occurs in area schools. We combine that education with distribution of tooth brushes and toothpaste. For many children, this is the first tooth brush they have ever owned.