A tooth by any other name

Ecuador marks the fourth country that I have practiced dentistry... And like always there are some interesting philosophies surrounding treatment provision that usually reflect the underlying cultural undertones. The lonely planet guide says that ecuadorians have one thing in common: a true disdain for the current political powers and for the next ones to come in and stuff things up. We experienced this today when a ministry of health dentist came to inspect our mobile field set-up... They weren't too worried about infection control, just expiry dates! Unfortunately some of our fluoride products were out of date, an offence that could have shut us down, luckily a bit of smooth talking got us in the clear (phew!).

Soo... Other than the MOH everyone else here is quite lovely. The group is made up of all women and one man (eeeek) there are three older women who all happen to be going through the hot flushes of menopause (quite entertaining) 10 or so Berkeley students (some under grad some at 'grad school') and a few locals. All-in-all they are a real pleasure to work with. Each of them have a reasonable grasp of the Spanish language and have been gracious enough to guide me through a few basics so now I know that 'diente' is tooth.

The children's teeth here are pretty comparable to Cambodia; however, the kids are generally a pretty normal size so maybe a three-year-old child here is the same as a five-year-old Cambodian. There are definitely a few more resources around and with any luck they might get a half-good government one of these days that only changes the laws once per week rather than three and a half!

Ecuadorian dentists at work