While half of us were out in rural areas doing focus groups and school/shopkeeper observations, all the technicians and clinic assistants were back at the hotel doing a week-long professional development training with Dr. Bethy. They spent each morning in classroom learning and each afternoon treating patients. (Thank you, Kidasha, for partnering with us and allowing us to work with children and adults in your program during our practical sessions!)

The basic training that is provided to our dental technicians was developed by the World Health Organization and is called the Basic Package of Oral Care. It’s just a few weeks long and focuses, logically, on teeth. Trainees learn how to place atraumatic glass ionomer fillings without electrical instruments, and to provide certain types of extraction. Over the years we have done a lot of innovation to take the Basic Package of Oral Care and contextualize it in a rural clinic, developing our own infection control and clinic-setup protocols. Last year when Dr. Bethy and Dr. Keri came for the first time, we added to the treatment package fluoride varnish and an arrest-carries technique with silver diamine fluoride (which, having just been approved by the FDA., is up-and-coming as a new treatment in the U.S. but has been in circulation in developing countries for a long time). With this range of interventions, our dental technicians can address a wide array of conditions in the remote areas where they work.

Beginning last spring with Dr. Keri, we started looking beyond teeth at treatment of the person. This means addressing not only a problematic tooth, but the disease process that is happening as a result of infection, lifestyle, and other factors. It requires looking at the entire mouth, including early-stage decay that might not yet be bothering someone, and setting up a plan to restore the health of the individual through a combination of comprehensive treatments and lifestyle adjustments. This way of practicing the Basic Package of Oral Care represents an enormous leap forward for our dental technicians and for the care delivery model we are trying to establish.

Over this last week, Dr. Bethy’s training took the skill of treatment planning to a whole new level. The technicians and clinic assistants got five and a half days of theory and practice in which they examined case studies, developed a treatment planning form, and explored how to make treatment decisions with a scared or resistant patient. Continuing with Keri’s lessons from last summer, the training examined ways to respectfully and sensitively approach children, who are often terrified to have someone examine their mouths, much less conduct treatments.

Our goal with all of this is to move out of crisis management and in to disease management in a way that looks at the entire person – yes, even for the rural poor, in regions with no running water or electricity.  I really can’t understate how progressive this approach is in an environment that trends at every institutional level toward delivering short-term, emergency relief for millions of people living in rural poverty.  Following this winter training, technicians will now complete treatment planning forms for each patient, allowing them prioritize and schedule interventions over a series of visits. In addition, working with Dr. Karen’s group has infused our program with a new focus on nutrition and lifestyle contributions to oral disease, so our children’s programs are going to start including junk-food free school zones and collaboration with shopkeepers to sell healthy snacks.

This is all still very much a work in progress, but when I came to technician training on Saturday, I filled with pride. The fact that our technicians are grappling with these questions is itself innovative. Back before this project even had a name, it was about elevating human dignity through access, consistency, and respect. That’s why it didn’t matter that none of the founders were expert medical practitioners. That we are having five-day trainings with community dentistry experts on how to factor in the amount of time it takes someone to get to the clinic, or their age or belief system or level of fear, is a remarkable level of sophistication. And yet, I firmly believe that this can and should be a system-wide standard.  As much as this is a set of clinical skills, it’s fundamentally a mindset.

And it’s doable.

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