Dr. Richard Winter got to go with his daughter Ariel (D3 dental student) and 35 other Marquette University School of Dentistry Students to Jamaica on the Christian Dental Society mission 3/10-3/17. Dr. James Carney the head of the CDS has been leading these mission trips several times a year for over 20 years with his wife and children! There were 6 dentists, an engineer and sterilization specialist and an Endodontist that oversaw the students and 2 endodontic residents. The Parish of St. Elizabeth is one of the poorest Parishes in Jamaica and patients traveled for hours to attend the clinic. Those that couldn’t be seen usually slept in the Church or waited outside to be seen the next day. While Dr. Carney has set up a clinic next to the church we had to move the pews to set up more chairs in the church to accommodate the vast numbers of patients.
The training these young dentists got was invaluable and not only did they serve with compassion and energy but with humility and incredible talent! The future of dentistry is in great hands and I hope others will support this amazing mission. Dr.s James and Sue Carney have worked tirelessly to bring dental chairs and suction units and instruments to this impoverished area and we even had an x-ray unit and surgical microscope to use! The gift and privilege of dentistry is something that should never be taken for granted and these young professionals have learned that the ability to restore a smile and remove pain is a great calling. For the week we saw 328 Patients. We did 343 extractions, 73 fillings, 57 cleanings and 21 root canals. This equates to a conservative donated dollar value of $105,000.00.
