Cambodia Charity Mission Trip
Dr Soh recently had the opportunity to go overseas on a Missions trip to Cambodia and lead a Dentistry team. Whilst there she was able to participate in some of the amazing work that is being done there by the local people and other expatriates who have given up their lives to help the Cambodian people recover from some of the devastation that Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge have wrought. It was an enlightening and rewarding experience.
The team had no working dental chairs, no sterilising equipment and limited communication skills as none of our party spoke Khmer and they have little English. Nevertheless, they used what they had and were able to set up 2 plastic garden chairs, a couple of tables, some towels, and some large stock pots filled with boiling water to construct a very basic dental surgery.
In 2 days, they saw over 75 patients and pulled out over 250 teeth. Most Cambodian people have very poor diets and very little if any oral hygiene practices. In general when Cambodians smile, most have at least one rotten and painful tooth, if not more! Most of the patients they saw had to have more than one tooth pulled out and despite the grimness of their situation, they were all so grateful for the work the Aussie team were doing- little though it was.
