Wisdoomtooth Journal

Tragedy in Ladakh

wisdomtooth — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:17:12 +0000

The severe monsoon rains that have hammered Pakistan and China have also unleashed their destructive force on Ladakh. Over a period of two days in early August, severe rains caused heavy flash floods in the capital of Leh, and other surrounding villages. Hundreds of people died, including a teacher a few students from Lamdon. We have not yet received word from the Ladakhi Nuns Association regarding whether any of them were injured. Due to this sudden tragedy, trainings for the remainder of the summer have been cancelled in order to give people a chance to rebuild their lives. Our hearts are with them all, and we will resume our efforts next year.

Farewell Tom

wisdomtooth — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:54:42 +0000

We would like to offer our condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Thomas Grams, who was murdered August 5th while on a trip with International Assistant Mission, delivering dental care to the people of Afghanistan. His energy and commitment to service were an inspiration. Tom was scheduled to go to Ladakh in September to trek and help train the Amchis of the Ladakh Nuns Association. I spoke to him many times by phone, and he was extremely excited about the idea of teaching local people how to deliver care in the most remote areas. We thank him for seeking us out, and introducing us to Dr. Tsering Palmo, and the Ladakhi Nuns. His efforts will continue helping the poorest and most remote people of Ladakh for many years to come.

Permanent Fillings in Humde

wisdomtooth — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:22:10 +0000

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.

Newburg Rotary Club Donates Adec PAC I unit to Lamdon School

wisdomtooth — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:08:48 +0000

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.

Cathy Hsu Comes Through

wisdomtooth — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:57:55 +0000

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.

Project Puff

wisdomtooth — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:45:19 +0000

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.

Promotional Video

wisdomtooth — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:30:36 +0000

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.

A little bit goes a long way....and a lot goes even further.

wisdomtooth — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:51:51 +0000

Wisdomtooth wishes to send special thanks to Dr. Jason Bourne of Bourne Othodontics and the others of the UW Dental school class of 2001 for their very generous financial support. Donations of such magnitude go a long way toward fulfilling out mission of teaching international health workers how to provide the most essential dental serviced to the people of their communities.

Thank you Cathy Hsu and Erik Koto

wisdomtooth — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:30:19 +0000

We are happy to report the successful trip of another volunteer. Wisdomtooth and Lamdon School give their sincere thanks to Cathy Hsu of the University of Washington Dental School, and independent documentary film producer, Erik Koto. The pair gave a week of assistance to Lamdon in Late September. Lamdon took the opportunity to use the help to provide treatment at their Shey campus. We do not have any exact numbers of patients seen, but reports are that the principal was extremely pleased with the service provided and has asked for Yangchen to return soon.

While Cathy and Yangchen dealt with decayed teeth and inflamed gums, Erik shot about 10 hours of film footage. We hope to see a short documentary about the Lamdon Social Welfare Society and/or school shortly after editing is complete.

Thank you again to both of you.

End of Summer Report

wisdomtooth — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:00:58 +0000

The training session ended with a flurry of activity and a huge vote of confidence. The group of 15 dentists from the Singapore Dental Society, utilizing their equipment and the donations brought from Norway, along with a bit of celebrity help (thanks Lior and Anna), managed to see a little over half of the Lamdon student body at the Leh campus. They put forth a huge effort and were a tremendous help in alleviating much of the back log of dental need. They were especially helpful in dealing with the more complicated cases and placing definitive, long term fillings.

Yangchen worked along side the team for the full week they were in Leh, primarily placing fillings, and cleaning. Since she speaks Ladakhi, she was able to calm the children and explain what was happening, allowing both dentist and patient to enjoy the experience and accomplish more. Furthermore, as it became clear that the team was not going to finish all treatment needs, they deferred many of the cases to her. They left for her many of the simple ART fillings and extractions of baby teeth.

In addition to her normal duties as nurse, she will continue providing dental treatment throughout the autumn, winter, and spring, doing what she can on site, and taking the more difficult cases to one of the very few local dentists. We will keep you informed of her personal progress, and the overall developments with the dental project at Lamdon school and surrounding areas.