Most of this section has been edited from this excellent book. Apart from some material on teaching, the majority of the book has been included, with minor editing.
Where There Is No Dentist
by Murray Dickson
with an Introduction by David Werner, author of Where There Is No Doctor
This book is certainly not intended to be the last word in community dental care. It is only a beginning. The author hopes to rewrite and improve the book with suggestions from readers.
Note on the use, adaptation, and translation of this book:
Each country is special, with its own particular customs, health needs, and ways of caring for people.
This book, therefore, must be adapted by dental workers in each country, using the language that is common to the local health workers there.
The author would be pleased to assist in any way with those who would translate or adapt the book.
We encourage persons or programs to use this book, or portions of it, in preparing their own manuals for villagers or health workers. Permission from the author or publisher is not needed-provided the parts reproduced are distributed free or at cost, not for profit. To avoid duplication of efforts, before beginning any translation, please write to The Hesperian Foundation.
We would like to rewrite this book and incorporate many of your ideas. If you have a suggestion, please write to Murray Dickson at The Hesperian Foundation. Better yet, if you write your own manual, please set aside two copies and send one to The Hesperian Foundation, Box 1692, Palo Alto, California 94302, USA. Send the other to AHRTAG (Appropriate Health Resources and Technologies Action Group), 85 Marylebone High Street, London W1M 3DE, England. Both organizations would like to help pass along your ideas to others.
THANKS
Where There Is No Dentist is here to fill a need. To many people, it has seemed that the existing books about dental care were either too incomplete or too complicated. If this book fills that need, it is only because a number of people worked hard to make it happen. To them I owe my sincere thanks.
Much has happened since that day in Papua New Guinea when David Werner's letter arrived. His challenge was simple: "Since no one else has written a dental manual like this, why don't you?" With David's encouragement and constant support, I was able to take teaching notes and produce a suitable draft that was the basis for this book. To you, David, for your patience in helping me learn, my heartfelt thanks. Thinks also to Trude Bock and Bill Bower for the home, food, direction, and support, during a short visit to The Hesperian Foundation in which the book took a definite turn for the better.
Michael Blake deserves special mention. As editor of Where There Is No Dentist, it was he who took the manuscript and nursed it along to completion. Michael's commitment to finishing the book was vital, and I sincerely appreciate it.
My thanks go to Maggie Leung for typing the final draft, and to those dedicated persons who helped get the book into final form: Annaloy Nickum (page design); Hal Lockwooo (typesetting and paste-up); Paul Chandler, Serena Clayton, and Elaine Rossi (proofreading); Pat Bernier (typing); and Howard Uno (photostats).
For their outstanding drawings, I am exceedingly grateful to: June Mehra, Janet Elliott de Jacques, Michael Marzolla, Joan Thompson, Mindy Mead, Arlene Ustin-Cartagena, and Lynn Gordon. My own drawings in the manual appear amateurish in comparison.
I want to thank the many persons who reviewed the manuscript and offered valuable suggestions: Ken Cripwell, Bill Bower, Jeff Vore, Aaron Yaschine, Rosalie Warpeha, Norma Francisco, Mike Muller, Marcia Anderson, Phil Haskett, Bert Ball, Tom Coles, Sunil Mehra, and John Rogers. In particular, thanks to Chris Lennox who, faced with stressful times in Papua New Guinea, found time to read through two drafts; and to David Morley for his idetis for improving the book and his assistance with its eventual publication.
For their financial help, I am grateful to the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust, Muttart Foundation, the Canadian Organization for Development through Education, and the James C. Penney Foundation.
I thank the C.V. Mosby Company and Dr. Kenneth Snawder for permission to adapt several drawings from the Handbook of Clinical Pedodontics.
Th;s book is based upon several years of practical experience, made possible by the Canadian Organization CUSO. For this opportunity, and for CUSO's active interest and involvement in this book, I most gratefully say thanks,
Finally, I want to acknowledge my family's contribution. For weeks on end, my wife, Gerp faithfully read and discussed with me each part of the book as it changed and was rewritten. She did this cheerfully, at a time when she was fully occupied in a graduate study program. For much longer than I had anticipated, Gerri and our two boys, Michael and Brennan, had to toierate my preoccupations.
My parents endured my wanderings and search for answers to human problems with love and a growing sense of understanding. It is my only disappointment that they did not live to see this book in its final form.
INTRODUCTION
by David Werner
A healthy tooth is a living part of the body. It is connected by 'life-lines' of blood and nerve to a person's heart and brain. To separate the tooth from the body, or even to interrupt those 'life-lines', means death to the tooth. It also means pain and injury to the body, to the person.
Let us look at it another way. The health of the teeth and gums is related to the health of the whole person, just as the well-being of a person relates to the health of the entire community.
Because of this, the usual separation between dentistry and general health care is neither reasonable nor healthy. Basic care of the teeth and gums—both preventive and curative—should be part of the 'know-how' of all primary health care workers. Ideally, perhaps, Where There Is No Dentist should be a part of Where There /s No Doctor. Think of it as a companion volume, both to Where There Is No Doctor and He/ping Health Workers Learn.
Murray Dickson has taken care to write this book in a way that will help the readers see dental care as part of community health and development. The approach is what we call 'people centered.'
Where There Is No Dentist is a book about what people can.do for themselves and each other to care for their gums and teeth. It is written for:
village and neighborhood health workers who want to learn more about dental care as part of a complete community-based approach to health;
- school teachers, mothers, fathers, and anyone concerned with encouraging dental health in their children and their community; and
- those dentists and dental technicians who are looking for ways to share their skilis, to help people become more self-reliant at lower cost.
Just as with the rest of health care, there is a strong need to 'deprofessionalize' dentistry—to provide ordinary people and community workers with more skills to prevent and cure problems in the mouth. After ail, early care is what makes the dentist's work unnecessary—and this is the care that each person gives to his or her own teeth, or what a mother does to protect her children's teeth.
While dental disease is decreasing in richer countries, it is on the increase in most poor countries. One reason for this is that people are eating fewer traditional (unrefined) foods and more pre-packaged commercial foods, often sweetened with refined sugar.
Even as the need for dental care is growing, there are still far too few dentists in poor countries. Most of those few work only in the cities, where they serve mostly those who can afford their expensive services.
People in many countries cannot afford to pay for costly professional dental care. Even in rich countries, persons who do not have dental insurance often do not get the attention they need—or go into debt to get it.
Two things can greatly reduce the cost of adequate dental care: poDular education about dental health, and the training of primary health workers as 'dental health promoters'. In addition, numbers of 'community dental technicians' can be trained—in 2 to 3 months plus a period of apprenticeship—to Cure for up to 90% of the people who have problems of pain and infection.
Dentists' training usually includes complicated oral surgery, root canal work, orthodontics (straightening teeth), and other complex skills. Yet most dentists rarely do more than pull, drill, and fill teeth-skills that require a fraction of the training they have received. The simpler, more common dental problems should be the work of community dental technicians who are on the 'front lines' (the villages), with secondary help from dentists for more difficult problems.
Would this reduce quality of service? Not necessarily. Studies have shown that dental technicians often can treat problems as well as or better than professional dentists. In Boston (U.S.A.), for example, a study showed many of the basic treatments commonly given by dentists to be done just as well, and often better, by dental technicians with much shorter training.
Fortunately, in some countries skilled dental technicians have managed to become the major providers of the most needed dental services. In India, there are still 'street-corner' dental technicians with foot-pedal drills, who drill and fill teeth at remarkably low cost.
In Honduras, denial technicians (who learn largely from each other, starting as helpers) have formed their own union. Their political strength recently was tested when, in the town of Trujillo, a dentist tried to put a technician out of business. The local technician had removed an infected root left mistakenly by the dentist. The technician had commented on the dentist's carelessness, and the dentist heard about it. The dentist sent a policeman who shut down the technician's office and took away his tools. However, the dental technicians' union took this to court. They argued thair rights to practice dentistry, because they are the only persons
working in marginal communities where dentists' prices are too high for the people. The court decided in favor of the technicians, and ordered the dentist to return the technician's tools and pay him for work lost.
In other countries dentists and community dental workers work in closer harmony. In Guatemala, Ecuador, Papua New Guinea, and Mozambique, dental technicians are now recognized by the Ministries of Health. In Papua New Guinea and Ecuador, professional dentists train and supervise them to provide dental care to school children. In Ecuador, they work mostly as dentist assistants, bringing high quality services to more people while decreasing costs. The 'dental therapists' in Papua New Guinea are trained to extract, drill, and fill teeth, as well as to work on prevention of dental problems in school children.
In Guatemala and Mozambique, dentists from the dental school have trained village health promoters as dental workers who work with people of all ages. Their training includes community dental health education, cleaning of teeth, extractions, and drilling and filling. These health workers are provided with the few basic instruments needed to provide these services.
In Project Piaxtla, Mexico (with which I and the Hesperian Foundation have worked for many years), visiting dentists have also helped train village 'dentics'. They, in turn, now teach basic dental skills to the part-time village hpalth workers. These village dentics, some of whom have had only 3 to 6 years of primary school, now practice—and teach—a wider range of dental skills than the average dentist. Their activities include dental health campaigns with school children, community puppet shows about low-cost dental self-care, cleaning of teeth, extractions, drilling and filling, and the making of dentures (false teeth). Several of the dental workers can now do root canal work—a special treatment to remove the central nerve in order to save an infected tooth. One of the village dentics, remembering what he had seen a dentist do, taught himself how to do root canals when his girlfriend had an infected front tooth that he did not want to pull. (He had also learned to check the tooth from time to time afterward to make sure this treatment had been successful.)
We still have much to learn about dental health. Dentists need to learn from the knowledge of the local people, as well as the people from the dentists.
We have learned that villagers with little formal education often can learn skills with their hands—such as tooth extractions, puppetry, or surgery-much faster than university students (who have never learned to use their hands for much more than pushing pencils). We aiso have observed that the best way to learn dentistry is not through school but through practice, helping someone with more experience who is willing to teach.
Where Them Is No Dentist has 2 parts. The first part (Chapters 1-5) discusses teaching and learning about preventive care. It begins by encouraging the health worker to examine herself and ner family. To be a good example is the best way to teach.
The second part (Chapters 6-11) talks about diagnosing and treating common dental problems. It is especially for those who live where they cannot reach or afford a dentist. A poor neighborhood in the city can be as distant and neglected as a far-off village. This second part is intended mainly for health workers who have helped organize people to meet their own needs.
Murray Dickson-a Canadian with primary care experience in Northern Canada, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Mozambique-has written this book in clear, simple language. He takes care to use popular names instead of unfamiliar scientific words. For example, instead of speaking of 'dental plaque' the author speaks of the 'coating of germs on the teeth.' Such simple language does not weaken the message. The message is stronger because everyone understands.
The author has said:
I am sure some dentists will disagree with parts of this book. Some points of disagreement may be small, like the failure to use accepted dental terminology. Other ideas, particularly the suggestion that non-dental people can be trained to provide many kinds of treatments, may make some dentists angry.
The book is meant to be a source for argument and discussion. This way, it may stimulate others to write the kind of manual that is really needed in their countries.
We hope that this will be only the first volume of Where There Is No Dentist. It takes the reader as far as simple extraction (pulling) of teeth and placement of temporary fillings. As we have seen, village workers can also learn a wide range of more difficult dental skills. We hope that later volumes of Where There Is No Dentist will include permanent fillings, homemade portable drilling equipment (many kinds have been developed), the making of false teeth, and root canal treatment. There is no reason why village workers cannot learn all of these skills and practice them at low cost to serve the millions who are unserved today.
The people must answer to the people's needs. The health of teeth and gums, along with general health, will improve only when people take the lead in caring for themselves. The challenge for dentists and other health professionals is to allow and encourage this to happen.
Where There Is No Dentist
by Murray Dickson
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Catalog card No. 82-84067
Dickson, Murray
Where there is no dentist.
Includes index. Palo Alto. CA: Hesperian Foundation ISBN: 0-942364-05-8
First edition, November, 1933
PUBLISHED BY:
The Hesperian Foundation P.O. Box 1692 Palo Alto, California 94302 U. S. A.
Copyright ©1983 by The Hesperian Foundation
