Destination Africa team to provide Dental care for the poor

Sydney Craven, left, and Ashley Nichols, both students at the ODS College of Dental Sciences in La Grande, will visit Liberia later this month with a Destination Africa Dental Team to provide dental care for poor children. Craven and Nichols are shown with a portable dental chair their team is bringing and some of the more than 1,500 toothbrushes it is also taking to Liberia. - The Observer/DICK MASON

The toothbrushes, though, will soon have children in Liberia whistling with excitement and wonder.

The new toothbrushes will be given to about 1,500 children in Monrovia, Liberia, by a team from the ODS College of Dental Sciences in La Grande later this month.

The Destination Africa Dental Team is going to Liberia for one week to provide dental care to orphaned children and children from impoverished families.

The dental team has collected more than 1,500 toothbrushes, which will be provided to the children, said Sydney Craven, an ODS student and a member of the Destination Africa team.

“A lot of them (the children in Monrovia) have never even seen a toothbrush,’’ Craven said.

Not surprisingly, most of the children have never seen a dentist either but soon will thanks to Ed Stuedli, DDS. Stuedli is a faculty member at the ODS College of Dental Sciences in La Grande. He will examine and provide dental care for the children.

This will be the 27th trip Ed Stuedli has made overseas to provide dental care to poor people. Other nations he has been to include Costa Rica, Serbia, Ukraine and El Salvador.

The children Stuedli sees will also be examined by members of the seven-person Destination Africa team. All are dental hygienists — or studying to become one. The students will clean the children’s teeth, put in fluoride sealants, teach the children about dental hygiene and

more. Most of the hygienists and students studying to become hygienists have never been to Africa.

“It will be the experience of a lifetime,’’ Craven said.

Ashley Nichols, an ODS dental hygiene student, anticipates seeing problems the magnitude of which she has yet to observe during the many community service projects she has been involved with in Union County through her school.

“We will see a lot cavities and decay, abscessed teeth and swollen gums,’’ Nichols said.

She knows that the situation will be overwhelming.

“One of the hardest things will be that we will want to fix every problem but we will not be able to,’’ Nichols said.

Craven and Nichols also will spend a lot of time getting to know the children and enjoying their company. They are bringing a jump rope, Nerf balls and other items they can use while playing games with the children and making meaningful connections.

“We want to encourage them and make them realize they are not forgotten,’’ Nichols said.

She anticipates the experience to be an emotional one because of the connections that will be made.

“There will be joyful tears because we will be so happy to help them and tears of sadness because we know they will never receive dental care like this again,’’ Nichols said.

Craven and Nichols are among 48 students at the ODS College of Dental Sciences in La Grande. The school is operated via a cooperative agreement involving Eastern Oregon University, Oregon Institute of Technology and ODS.

Nichols, Craven and Stuedli will be joined on the African trip by ODS College of Dental Sciences in La Grande graduates Jade Grant, now an ODS faulty member, Chelsea Koch and Audra Gross; plus dental hygienist and ODS faculty member Pauline Stuedli, the wife of Ed Stuedli.

The children the dental team will see in Liberia are students at the Jennie Preparatory elementary school. It provides free education, meals and medical care to poor children in Africa.

The Liberian school is run by its founder Jennie Freitag, whose daughter, Jodie Isaacson, is a graduate of the ODS College of Dental Sciences in La Grande. 

The Destination Africa Dental Team is raising funds for the purchase of food for children at the school in Monrovia. As part of its fundraising drive a spaghetti feed and silent auction will be conducted from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church. Cost of the dinner is $8 for adults and $20 for a family of four or more. Donations will also be accepted.