12 / 44
10
New Mexico Dental Journal, Fall 2015
Volunteering—Back to Basics in Central America
By Tony Algermissen, DDS
M
y parents instilled in my siblings and me the belief
that helping the less fortunate is one of the reasons
we exist on this earth. In the summer between
my high school sophomore and junior year, I travelled to
Honduras as part of a team from Amigos de las Americas to
administer vaccinations in rural areas. Years later, when my
partner, Dr. Shelly Fritz, started going to Guatemala as part
of The Faith in Practice organization, it was just a matter of
time before I joined the team.
In some ways, the trip to
Guatemala was a natural
extension of what I experi-
enced in Honduras. We trav-
elled to a Central American
country where we didn’t speak
the language and the poverty
was beyond description.
In many ways the trip to
Guatemala was very different
from my high school mission.
I was thrown so far out of my
comfort zone. We worked
in areas with no electricity
and half the time we set up
outside with no roof over
our heads. With the limited
access and materials, we could
only perform dental extrac-
tions. I have extracted teeth
on the beach with the Gulf of
Honduras mere steps away. I
have extracted teeth under
mango trees outside a coffee
warehouse. The patient chair
was a wooden table and we used rolls of paper towels as pillows.
We had no x-rays. Have you ever extracted a tooth without first
looking at an x-ray of that tooth? That will certainly blow you
out of your comfort zone.
Have you ever attended to a 14-year-old who is pointing to what
looks like a sound lower left first molar, and indicating that it
hurts? I didn’t want to extract it with no x-ray available to show
me what was really there. I asked several times if he was sure
it hurt. Shelly’s advice to me
was “if he says it hurts, then
pull it.” Sure enough, I pulled
the tooth and it had a huge
carious interproximal lesion.
The dentistry we practice in
Guatemala (and other remote
locations) is vastly different
from our learned practice
experiences in the U.S. It is
physically and emotionally
exhausting. Yet, as it pulls
you back each year, it is like
the most addictive narcotic.
I feel so needed. The locals
are genuinely grateful for our
presence. Shelly summed up
the work perfectly, “It is nour-
ishment for your soul.”
You can contact the Faith In
Practice office at 713-484-5555 or
so
that they can work to find a role on
one of our available teams.
Tony in the catacombs of the famous church in San Agustín
Acasaguastlán, El Progreso, Guatemala
Volunteering
“It is nourishment for your soul.”