BEMBEREKE, Benin -- Dental Officer Lt. Cmdr. Joon Lee massaged his forearm as he walked away from the dentist’s chair. Pulling teeth can get tiring, especially after helping in a small, two-chair clinic treating 57 Beninese patients over the course of several hours.
The dental workers of the 24th Dental Company, 4th Dental Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group based in Marietta, Ga., ran the clinic in the village of Sinende as part of Exercise SHARED ACCORD 2009.
Along with dental services, the six-day Medical Assistance Program coordinated by the Air Force’s 459th Expeditionary Air Medical Squadron and three Benin Army doctors, provided free primary medical, and optometry services in three villages.
It’s tiring work, with dental workers switching out every several patients for a rest before putting on another pair of latex gloves.
Still, to the workers, it’s work that must be done.
“Everyone in the world deserves medical care,” said Fayetteville, N.C. native and dental technician Petty Officer 3rd Class Froilan Farinas. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or where you live.”
Most of 4th Dental’s patients needed tooth extractions. Gum disease and a lack of proper, if any, dental hygiene had loosened or decayed many of the patients’ teeth.
Some cases, however, could become life threatening if not treated.
“People don’t think dentists save lives, but they do,” said Dental Officer Cmdr. Barry Duncan, an Asheville, N.C. native, adding that infections that begin with teeth can spread to other parts of the body, including the heart.
He described treating one patient who had an area of swelling the size of a grape fruit on the left side of his face that was rooted behind a decayed tooth. A simple extraction allowed the infection to drain, alleviating a painful and potentially life threatening condition.
Dental technician and leading petty officer in the clinic, Petty Officer 1st Class AnnMarie Wilson of Roswell, Ga., removed a layer of plaque nearly an inch wide from the upper teeth of one patient at another Beninese village.
“He’s 15 years old and he’s never brushed in his life,” she said, explaining that many of the conditions they had treated so far were entirely preventable with proper dental hygiene.
“We just have to do our best to give them tooth brushes and dental hygiene lessons,” she said.
These lessons, as well as diagnosis, are difficult, said Duncan, because everything must be translated from local tribal language, Bariba, into French, and then into English.
Consequently, many medical conversations involve at least four people: the Bariba-speaking patient, a native Bariba-French translator, a French-English Beninese army translator, and finally, an American service member to receive the English question or complaint.
”Sometimes we stand around and translate 10-15 minutes before we can get to work,” explained Duncan. He noted that many of the locals don’t understand the possible impact of dental problems, and must be warned of the general health problems caused by poor dental hygiene.
Even so, reservist Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Hooversten, who works as a civilian dental assistant when not with the 4th Medical Battalion back in her home town of San Diego, would rather treat the Beninese than the usual American patients she sees.
“They look at you and tell you thank you, and you see in their faces that they are sincere,” said Hooversten, a religious programs specialist who assisted at the dental clinic because of her civilian experience. “These people are so happy just to have that extraction done, to have that pain taken away.”
SHARED ACCORD is a scheduled, combined U.S.-Benin exercise designed to improve interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation’s military tactics, techniques and procedures. Humanitarian and civil affairs events run concurrent with the military training. The exercise is scheduled to conclude June 25.