Having now returned to the sea level oxygenation of Puget Sound, I can reflect with clarity upon the incredible week we had in what is called “Amazing Peru”. I would strongly support this characterization – and I didn’t even get to go to the pretty beaches (I’ll save that for my next trip). As I’ve said throughout my blog, there is much opportunity for us to collaborate between our Early Childhood Oral Health (ECOH) program and programs such as the First Lady of Peru’s incredible Project Sembrando. Dental disease in children is one of the few conditions that is just as severe, if not more severe, in developed parts of the world as in developing parts of the world. This fact enables the ECOH program to study and create solutions locally, and assist in their delivery both locally and internationally. We have already begun correspondence with Project Sembrando and will first learn how we can accurately assess the extent of dental disease in the children in high altitude regions of the Andes. Only then will we determine how we might work together to create prevention and treatment programs.
Had we not hired two talented faculty from Peru to work with us at the University of Washington (UW), none of this would have happened. Had I not met Lucho in years past (a UW alumnus now practicing there), this might not have happened. Yet, with all of us aligned in our thinking we can do what is most important in prevention of the most common chronic disease in children – tooth decay. What is most important is raising awareness of this essentially preventable but often devastating disease. We have only begun to truly document the morbidity of tooth decay. It is clearly much worse than we know, both in the suffering of the child and in funds spent by healthcare systems around the world. This is even more significant when one includes the medical management costs if the disease spreads beyond the tooth to the face, as it too often does when there is little access to care.
I have attached a few selected final photos as reminders of the trip, but we will update with more as this story gets told.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Final Pictures
Photo 1 – Drs. Seminario, Berg and Horruitiner discuss trip to Andes
Photo 2 – Beautiful courtyard at my hotel in Cusco
Photo 3 – Road in Cusco showing several types of materials, brick, stone, clay – some old, some new, but never cement.
Photo 4 – Child examined in Andes showing “chronic hyperplastic pulpitis” (pulp polyp) in lower left permanent first molar – evidence of chronic disease, and more commonly found in primary molars. Other teeth also badly decayed – this was a typical finding. (Taken without an intra-oral camera)
Photo 5 – Children gathered ready to learn about toothbrushing
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