Wisdomtooth

We are preparing for another trip to Humde, Nepal.  Dr. Michael Guggolz of Germany has graciously offered to spend three weeks training our Dental Health Worker, Karma Buti, this autumn.  He will be in Humde from late September until early October.  Training supplies have already been sent to Kathmandu, and are now just waiting for the long hike to Humde.  The hope is that they will be able to get the existing dental unit working quickly, and start learning how to place occlusal restorations. 

Thanks to the financial support of Bill Kite and the Rotary club of Newburg Oregon, Lamdon will soon have a PAC I portable dental unit from Adec (not pictured in photo to left).  With unsurpassed durability, reliability, and performance, the PAC I is the gold standard of portable dental units, and we are all extremely excited and thankful to have it.  It is currently being fitted by Myra Elliot's team (Singapore Dental Society), and will be brought with them in mid-July when they come for five days to provide extensive medical care (dermatological, opthamological, gynecological, and dental) to the people of Nubra Valley, north of Leh near the Tibetan and Pakistani border.  They will be working out Lamdon's satellite school in Diskit.  

Thanks to Cathy and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students at the University of Washington Dental school.  She collected close to 50 "typodont" (plastic simulation teeth) and at least as many extracted teeth from Yangchen Dolma to practice fillings.  We have been practicing using a dental drill and placing class I (chewing surface), and class II (interproximal/between) amalgam fillings.  The hope was that Yangchen become proficient at just the simple chewing surface fillings.  This is the most common site of decay in adult molars, and a great long term benefit.  She advanced so quickly that we decided to learn interproximal fillings as well.  She is doing everything technically perfect.  She just needs increased exposure to using a mouth mirror (everything is opposite), and live patients.  The latter has been a difficult task.  There is a noticeable decrease in the number of children with decayed adult molars due the everyones' (Singapore Dental Society, Vivian Levy, and Yangchen) efforts.  However, we are confident that there is enough candy here to seed at least a few cavities.  

Have we mentioned that it gets really cold in Ladakh during the winter?  Well, Julianne Fleischmann was paying attention.  She heard about how bone chillingly cold it can get high on the Tibetan plateau, and how little many of the families have, and so took it upon herself to launch what we are calling "Project Puff".  A women who tends to feel the chill of north winds during winter herself, Julianne launched the campaign to collect donations of down jackets for the most needy children attending Lamdon School.  She had overwhelming success.  Close to two dozen people have helped in one way or another, and we thank them sincerely. 

The plan was to collect donations of old down jackets that were no longer being warn, fill a duffle bag or two, and send them with volunteers heading to Ladakh.  What a response she received.  Julianne not only received enough warm, quality jackets to completely stuff two massive duffle bags, but she has many more waiting to come with future volunteers, or people simply traveling to the region.  In some cases, people who didn't have jackets, but still wished to support, gave cash donations to help with any additional transportation costs, or to purchase jackets locally.  Some even went as far as to scour stores for end of winter sales, and found some smokin' deals on excellent new winter jackets. 

They will be give to Eshey Tundup, the principal of Lamdon School.  He has a very good grasp of who the neediest children are, and distribute the jackets this autumn before the long, cold, harsh winter sets in once again.  Any jackets that did not make the cut because they were not warm enough, or too large were donated to local charities in the Wenatchee area such as Haven of Hope so they can be fully utilized and appreciated. 

Thank you all who helped for your generosity.  Also, thank you to Spicejet and Delta airlines for waiving the excess luggage fee, and Alison Holzmacher for providing a discounted airline ticket for our volunteer to go to India.  We completely appreciate those who are digging a little deeper during this economic slump to help those in greater need than themselves. 

Erik Koto has been very busy this winter putting together a short promotional video about Wisdomtooth.  Taking footage and interviews from his trip last Autumn, he has created a very professional video that provides an intimate, and more palpable look at what we are accomplishing.  We should have the final edit finished soon, and posted on the internet before too long.  We will also provide a link to the video he is working on regarding Lamdon School.  If it is anything like the Wisdomtooth video, we can't wait to see it.  We sincerely thank Erik for all of his hard work, time, and expertise.  Well done and thank you.