Look at those teeth!

Meet the kids of Huai Biong School. They have great looking teeth, don’t they?

This was not the case just one year ago. Last year our medical team took a weekend trip to visit this small village school. We wanted to get a better idea of what life in a remote village was really like. Huai Biong village does now have a paved road and it got electricity a few years ago, but life here is still much the way it was before these additions. They still cook over an open fire inside their houses. They still sit and sleep on the floor. They did put in an outhouse with a toilet seat just for western guests but that was about as modern as they got. On our trip a year ago we also took a look at the health of the village and gave health related advice. We asked to see the top 6 worst

medical complaints of the children first. I am not sure what we expected but it was not what we actually got. All 6 worst complaints of the children were dental! On that trip we had an ENT resident, a pediatrician and global health expert, and a physical therapist but no dentist. As we tried to understand the problem better we realized the problem was much more basic than ever crossed our minds. As it turns out most if not all the children had dental complaints. So we asked, “How often do they brush their teeth?” We got a blank look coming back at us. Our first thought was poor translating but we then realized they had no clue about brushing their

teeth! We asked, “How many have tooth brushes?” and only a handful of 50 kids even owned a toothbrush! We immediately assembled all the children and the teachers and gave a talk on the importance of brushing your teeth and what food should be avoided and so on. When we returned home I printed out copies in Thai on dental hygiene in a village setting and sent it back to the village with 50 toothbrushes. The teachers were given instructions and were to teach all the children.

On this years trip I did not have time to go to this village myself but I had one of the locals, Pastor Suradet, who goes to the village regularly, take pictures and deliver some donated school supplies to them as seen in this picture.

He assured me the children brush their teeth every day and have virtually no dental complaints this year! Praise God for this unexpected but very necessary interaction and that we were able to be a part of it!

The problem we stumbled onto can be a common one in the developing world. You see, when a people eat all home grown foods there is little need for tooth brushing. Usually a village people will use some sort of fibrous branch to clean their teeth from time to time and there are substances they can use in place of toothpaste like ashes for one. The Main problem for these kids was modern processed food and the dreaded Soda Pop! Now they have a road so people have easier access to processed crackers and cookies and other foods that are much harder on teeth than home grown food. Soda is absolutely the worst! But no one educated them on these things and of course the soda does not come with a warning label (although I personally think it should). Take a look at these awful teeth from last years trip.

Also of note were the bags of school supplies the teachers were holding in some of the pictures. I was assigned to deliver as many of these supplies to needy children as I could take to Thailand. A wonderful family in California felt prompted to send these supplies with me after seeing pictures from last year. The supplies consisted of pencils, colored pencils, home made note pads with pictures on them, pencil sharpeners, scissors, crayons, some hair ties and a jump rope. These were a huge blessing and help to this poor village school. As you may notice in some of the pictures they do not have much and every bit helps. Perhaps this small gift of supplies will have as meaningful of an impact on these children as the toothbrushes. I hope to check in with them again next year.