7/15/18-7/28/18
This summer, I got to serve on a service trip in the Dominican Republic. This was through Ohio State’s VAW Dental chapter. We went to the Dominican Republic and worked with a group of students from UPitt. We set up a free health clinic in a small town near Jarabacoa, and for a week we did the following jobs:
-shadowed and assisted one of the dentists
–> the extent of assisting was suctioning the patient’s mouth, helping take x-rays, and retrieving instruments for the doctor
-sterilization (sterilizing all the instruments)
-supplies (setting up prophy cleaning trays, restoration trays, extraction trays)
-vitals (glucose levels, blood pressure, temperature)
-intake (recording down patient information)
This was a challenging trip for me as it taught me how to interact and communicate with people that I normally don’t associate with, and especially the locals. I never knew Spanish, and the locals didn’t know English, so it was a challenge (but a good one!) to communicate. The dentist I shadowed (Dr. Noelia) also taught my partner and I some Spanish phrases to say to the patients. We spent one week at clinic, and then the second week exploring Dominican Republic.
Total Volunteering Hours: 30 hours
–>Monday – Saturday, 9am-3pm (1 hour lunch break) = 5 hours
(Shadowing Hours): 10/30 hours
–> Tuesday and Wednesday = 10 hours