Dental Care Takes Off on Recent Mission Trip with Donation of RVG 6200s

March 30, 2018

An airplane touches down on a dirt landing strip in San Quintín, Baja California, carrying volunteer doctors and dental equipment. The volunteers of Mission Flight begin to unload supplies for transportation to the dental clinic and dormitory that they had helped build a few years earlier. It’s just the beginning; over the course of the next three days, Drs. James Marc Haney and Mike Yung will provide care for 100 local patients at no cost.

Mission Flight, an all volunteer non-profit organization based in Southern California, has been visiting the small coastal town of San Quintín since 2016. Though the town is one of the largest clusters of population in the region, there are still only about 25,000 people in the area. A lack of fluoride in the water combined with the local diet that relies on highly refined carbohydrates and limited knowledge regarding caries prevention means that patients experience rampant decay and periodontal disease. When Mission Flight volunteers visit, root canal therapy and extractions are common in adults and children alike.

However, thanks to a recent donation of two RVG 6200s from Carestream Dental, Drs. Haney and Yung were able to provide better care for their patients on their most recent mission trip. The digital technology leads to more accurate diagnoses; allows for on-the-spot treatment planning; and means more effective execution of treatment.

“We are able to more confidently and effectively remove more difficult extractions” Dr. Yung said. “In deep caries, we could determine whether or not it was worth the time to restore or extract. Without X-rays, we would be less efficient in our diagnosis.”

“Ultimately, the people received a higher level care and had better treatment outcomes as a result of using this great technology,” Dr. Haney said.

Of the 100 patients treated for on the February 2018 trip, more than half were children. In addition to dental care, each child received a backpack of school supplies and a hygiene kit. Though treatment varied from patient to patient, the doctors and other volunteers captured X-rays with the RVG 6200; performed extractions, fillings and prophies; provided full-mouth periodontal scaling and root planning; and offered oral hygiene instruction for preventative care. In total, the team delivered approximately $20,000 worth of services at no cost.

To learn more about Mission Flight and its many other services, visit missionflight.org.


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