Journey to the Caribbean
Butler dentist Robert Todd jetted off to a Caribbean destination at the beginning of March. But the owner of Butler Smiles Dental Care, 291 Evans City Road, wasn't going to the Dominican Republic to laze around a resort pool.
Todd, his wife, Jill, and two volunteers, Alex Mitchell of Murrysville and James Golla of Butler, spent six days tending to the dental needs of villagers in an isolated, rural section of the country, west of the capital of Santo Domingo.
Between March 5 and 12, Todd estimates he saw 350 people in six different locations in the island nation. His work, for the most part, was literally pulling teeth.
“The only site where we can do anything more than extractions was the first day where we stayed at the mission center,” said Todd. “At all the other sites we did extraction only.”
Todd said the mission center in the lakeside village of Mucha Agua was at least equipped with dental chairs and equipment. At the other stops, he said the dental team made do with wooden chairs and portable lights.
Conditions in the Dominican Republic aren't conducive to healthy teeth, he said.
“Sugar cane is grown on the island. Kids grow up chewing on the cane as a treat, so tooth decay is rampant. Oral hygiene is not real good,” Todd said.
“Access to toothbrushes is not a major issue for them,” he said.
So, Todd and his team would set up in the village church and pull cavity-ridden and damaged teeth.“We made sure we had good pain control,” he said, in the form of Novocaine.It was Todd's sixth trip to the Dominican since he made the first visit in 2001.That's when he met Gary and Cindy Klein who started the Christian Dominican Medical Mission in Mucha Agua.“They're both nurses, and they started their project to provide medical care and to be able to share their Christian beliefs with the people there,” said Todd.“I like these people because they are genuinely concerned with the welfare of the people. They are not just trying to get people to say they believe in Jesus.”Todd said, in addition to the medical clinic, the Kleins have started a vocational center at Mucha Agua to train the local men in skills such as engine repair, construction and furniture making to help them escape the widespread poverty on the island.Todd said he met the Kleins when he traveled to the Dominican Republic to help another dentist on a medical mission. “And I've continued to come back,” he said.In fact, in 2005, Todd's church, Christ Community United Methodist Church, 205 N. Duffy Road, sent a group of 30 to do repairs on a hurricane-damaged school.
It was a smaller group this March, Todd said. It consisted of himself; his wife, Jill, a dietitian and counsel with a Gibsonia medical practice; Mitchell, who plans to become a dentist; and Golla, a member of Christ Community.The group flew from Pittsburgh to Atlanta and then made the four-hour flight to Santo Domingo, followed by a two-hour drive to Mucha Agua.Some of the outlying villages he visited were a four-hour drive by Land Rover and some clinic visits lasted from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.“I accumulated all of the equipment that I needed,” said Todd. “I made sure to take along disposable supplies to keep things restocked at the clinic.”“The clinic would contact the church leaders in the towns we were going to, and they'd created and urgency list of who we were going to see,” Todd said.He said tooth decay and remote locations notwithstanding, he finds the country and its people beautiful.“The Dominican Republic is the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola,” said Todd. “Most of the island is tropical jungle, although there is a desert area with cactus on the southern coast. We drove through it to reach the village of Guayabal.”“There are some very mountainous areas. There's a peak in the central part of the island that is 10,000 feet,” he said.“They are pretty close to the equator, so the weather doesn't change that much: 80 to 90 in the day, 70s at night. March is the dry season,” said Todd.“In the rural areas, the people are poor. Some have a little plot of land that they grow food on. But they are a pretty poor country,” he said.“On these winding mountain roads, you see these small motorcycles. They are all over the place,” he said. “Or they're riding donkeys.
You see most of the donkeys just wandering around. They have to forage for their own food because their owners can't afford to feed them.”“There is no middle class,” Todd said. “There is a very small wealthy class and a huge poverty class.”“The people themselves are beautiful. When they are children, they are lovely,” he said. “As adults, they lose teeth, and poor nutrition tends to wear them down.”“But they keep themselves clean and take pride in what they do have,” Todd said.“They have schools, but they only go two to three hours a day. They graduate in eighth grade which is the equivalent of our third- or fourth-grade education. They really aren't in any position to lift themselves out of poverty,” he said.However, baseball does provide a way out for some. “Which is why you see so many Dominican players,” Todd added.Todd said he will probably go back in 18 months to two years on another dental mission.“It is very rewarding to do these kinds of things, to help people out,” he said. “I find that even though we work hard, it is very enjoyable. That's why we keep going back.”
The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean nation occupying the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Haiti. It is slightly more than twice the size of New HampshireIts population of 10,349,741 is 95 percent Catholic. Spanish is the official language.Christopher Columbus explored and claimed the island on his first voyage in 1492.In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti. The remainder of the island, by then known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own independence in 1821 but was conquered and ruled by the Haitians for 22 years; it finally attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844.The Dominican Republic has long been viewed primarily as an exporter of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, but in recent years the service sector has overtaken agriculture as the economy’s largest employer.The economy is highly dependent upon the United States, the destination for more than half of exports. Remittances from the U.S. amount to about one-tenth of GDP, equivalent to almost half of exports and three-quarters of tourism receipts.The country has become a transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the United States and Europe.There is substantial money-laundering activity in particular by Colombian narcotics traffickers.Source: CIA World Fact Book
