Dr. G is Honored With a Distinguished Fellowship!

This past weekend I was back in Kingston Jamaica where I spoke about Endodontic Irrigation at the Rosalie Warpeha Caribbean Institute For Strategic Planning And Research In Oral Health.

I was also  honored with a Distinguished Fellowship from the University Of Technology. Here is a video of me receiving this award. 

It was great to be back to see old friends and faculty as well as being able to see the progression of my students. Things are really improving in Jamaica and I am so proud to be a part of it. Special thanks to Dr. Irving Mackenzie and Dr. Winston Grey for helping to make this all possible. 

The Learning Continues........

I returned to Jamaica at the beginning of April to continue with the didactic portion of the course that I had started in February. Luckily this time I was able to bring with me all the technological equipment that customs had not let through before. It was such a relief that it went smoothly this time around so that we could complete the laboratory section of this course. The first day, Sunday, I spent the majority of the time doing a review of cleaning and shaping the root canal system, as well as obturation using warm vertical condensation of gutta percha. The students were not able to afford to purchase nickel titanium files that are necessary to create the necessary shapes of the root canals, so customs allowed me to bring down a generous, personal supply of the files from my own office in Toronto. The students spent the day doing the laboratory exercises and becoming familiar with all the various techniques that were taught.  Everyone passed the laboratory component with flying colors.

(Lauren writes her final exam...and passes!!)

(Me giving a private tutorial to some students!!)

On Monday Dr. Brynne Reece, who is a visiting dentist enrolled in the endodontic program at the University of Maryland, came down for an externship program at U Tech. I spent one full day “up close and personal” giving her a crash course on how to do endodontics predictably and painlessly. The day wrapped up by performing a live patient demonstration to reinforce the concepts and techniques taught in the morning.

(The students at work on their final exam! )

On Tuesday morning I administered the final exam to the second year dental students. I am happy and proud to report that they all passed with flying colors. I am looking forward to maintaining ongoing communication with the students and faculty to make sure the learning continues in the most efficient way. I will be returning in the fall when this class enters 3^rd year dentistry and they start working with live patients. I will be able to supervise them along with the other faculty members. I can not stress enough how special of an experience this has been for me and how good it feels to be a part of helping Jamaica improve its dental care for those in need.

(Dr. Benjie Cooperband, from Guelph, Ontario, teaching the fine art of Exodontia!!)

Last Day of School: Raising a Glass to a Brighter Future in Jamaica

Today we had an incredible last day of class. Unfortunately, due to a technical customs issue, the main supplies that we needed for treatment did not arrive from Miami. However, we were able to make due with the only supplies we did have available for us to do the root canal treatment in the morning, which were the hand files. In fact, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it allowed me to get down to bare bone basics with regards to teaching how to internally sculpt the root canal system. Each and every student not only understood the concepts taught, but were reinforced by actually watching how the root canal automatically was shaped by employing the techniques discussed.

By pushing up our sleeves and actually using the basics, it has created a foundation for more advanced techniques to be used as the year goes on.

A special thanks goes out to Steve Jones from Sybron Endo for the generous donation of equipment and supplies which has saved the University of Technology, Jamaica in excess of $50,000 US!! Also thanks goes out to Alba Campusano from Denca iDental Supply in the Dominican Republic for facilitating the delivery of the Endo Kits for the students.

It was such a great week for the students of the new dental school and I am touched by how grateful they were as the final class ended. For me, as I make my way back home to snowy Toronto, I realize how much of an   incredible learning and rewarding experience this was. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this and I am looking forward to returning to Kingston over the next couple of months to see the students' progress and to continue to empower the future dental students of Jamaica! I thank you for all the support I have received during this adventure and I hope you will continue to follow my journey.

In the above photo from left to right is: Dr. Irving McKenzie, Myself, Alba Campusano form Denca Dental Supply Company, Steve Jones from Sybron Endo and Dr. Winston Grey

Fourth Day of School: Today Endodontics...Tomorrow the Grammys

Monday was a very long session, which included a full day of lectures.  These intensive sessions included discussions on Instrumentation,  Irrigation and Obturation. Luckily the students' interest was held all day and they enjoyed it whole heartedly as did I. There was a lot of information to take in an Dr. Garth Officer, a medical doctor and now a dental student, gave me a tip. He recited to me that "Repetition deepens the impression!" From then on I made sure to constantly repeat and review the material in order for the students to retain the information. This would be helpful for the hands on workshop scheduled for tomorrow. Mnemonics also often help with the retention of material so the students rapped to remember. As you can tell from the picture above the students had a great time as they rapped to Obturation.
I am looking forward to tomorrow's workshop but getting anxious because the equipment that is to be used is being held up in Miami due to some technical issues regarding entering the country. However I am told "don't worry about a thing, cuz every little thing's gonna be alright!"
Stay tuned tomorrow as my jaunt in Jamaica continues.

Third Day of School: Strength in Numbers

We began today at 8 am Island time (9 am). the students accessed teeth all morning long and I wouldn't let them leave until they got it down perfectly and had the chance to attempt each tooth group. Once again they were helpful to each other and the camaraderie was contagious. The microscope you see above was generously donated by Global Microscopes and facilitated by Mr. Steve Newfield from Toronto. Halfway through the morning I was joined by Dr. Wallace and Dr. Gray who took parts of the class for me as it was difficult for me to give all thirty students the personal attention they deserved. 

Picture in the photo to the right is: Dr. Mackenzie, Chief Dental Officer of Jamaica and Acting Dean of the Dental College; Dr. Gray, Regional head of Dental Services in Southern Jamaica and Adjunct Associate Professor, Dr. Wallace; Myself, and Honourable John Junior, Former Minister of Health.
Since the day grew hotter and more humid, class was dismissed before 1 pm. We will reconvene tomorrow in the classroom where Cleaning, Shaping and Obturation lectures will make up most of Day 4 in sunny Jamaica. 

Second Day of School: Teaching Together

After a quick trip back home to work for a few days, I arrived back in Jamaica to continue teaching the endodontics course. The students were prepared and once again anxiously awaiting my return. We started at 8 am, which on island time translates to 8:45 am. This is something that I'm learning to adapt to. We immediately started going through rubber dam and its application then followed it up with tooth morphology and access opening. From there we went straight to clinic.  Unfortunately not all the students had their own rubber dams, clamps, punches or forceps. So as they say, we made lemonade out of lemons by improvising and making due with what was available for us. A quick show of hands let me know only two students had a full complement of supplies and so based on that, we split off into two groups where each of the students had an opportunity to apply rubber dam on their mannequin heads under my supervision. As the morning progressed, it was incredible for me to observe how the students actually became the teachers! They were able to help each other out with appropriate guidance and they had a great time doing it!!

This afternoon we are going to go on a hunt for burs and tomorrow we will start accessing the teeth that they collected over the last week. Stay tuned as this fantastic adventure continues. 

Dr. G's First Day of School

When I got to the school today there were 30 second year dental students anxiously awaiting my arrival. They were jammed into the small portable classroom that had been made available for us. There were even a couple of first year students that managed to sneak into the classroom. They explained that they wanted to learn new things from The Canadian Endodontist!!!! I started off by giving an entertaining Introduction lecture. I then followed that by a Pulp Biology lecture and finally wrapped the day up with an intense Diagnosis lecture and Case Presentation.

The students were friendly, keen, excited, and ready to learn. Day one turned out to be a big success.

The gave them a few tasks for homework for the the week. They are to gather extracted teeth and mount them to get ready for the practical session next weekend, to review my manual, to brush up on my videos and to psyche themselves up to learn how to save teeth.........one root at a time!!!!!

My Arrival in Kingston, Jamaica

Last night after arriving in Kingston, Jamaica (here I am on the plane), I met with the key doctors in the faculty including; the Acting Dean of the Dental College, the clinical coordinator and the president of the student body to put together an action plan for the course. 

This morning I willl meet the second year dental students, who I will be teaching endodontics from the ground floor up. These lessons will include the basics grounded in science, pulp biology, diagnosis and a step by step approach. It is a great way to start them off so they will not be overwhelmed. I am positive it will be the beginning of something great and I am sure they are feeling as excited and eager as I am to get started. 

Committing to the Cause

For many years now, I have been providing volunteer dentistry in Jamaica, in addition to teaching the local dentists there how to provide proper endodontic care to their patients. Recently a new dental school was constructed at the University ofTechnology, in Jamaica and I was appointed Adjunct Professor of Dentistry, a non paying position. I strongly believe in paying it forward and that doing hands-on charitable work can often be more effective than just writing a check. The School of Oral Health Sciences is a new institution that was established in September 2010 in a response to the overwhelming burden of Oral and Dental Diseases in Jamaica. The Current Dental Workforce is approximately one dentist to seventeen thousand of the population. Despite their best efforts, all previous scholarship to the USA and Canada has not yielded the expected results as many of the new graduates prefer to not to return to Jamaica. In collaboration with Dalhousie University, Health Canada and the Pan American Health Organization / WHO, the University of Technology, Jamaica has worked on a Human Resources in Health module. With the participation of an Economist from the University of Toronto, a mathematical model was created and when it was populated with the appropriate data the results were astonishing. They indicated that in the South East Region of Jamaica some 900 dentists were needed. Using the epidemiological profile of the Country, only 15% of Jamaicans have health insurance and about half of that amount have adequate dental insurance. The Public system therefore provides care for the majority of the Nation. There are only 45 Dental Surgeons in the Public Health to a population of over two million people. Jamaica still has a high prevalence of oral and pharyngeal cancers with a five year survival rate less that 20%. Jamaica is experiencing severe challenges in terms of reducing the overall burden of diseases due to dental conditions. Over the years my colleagues and I have been  providing care to countless numbers ofthe Jamaican people. I also have  been involved in capacity building and knowledge transfer activities to empower local dentists to do more endodontics. The University of Technology, Jamaica is a very young school with low resources. They have emulated the Canadain module and are working on conformance with the CDAC standards. The University of Technology has also written for help and has been in exploratory talks with the CDAC. It is been a long time coming to provide the Jamaican population proper dental care as oral health is directly related to General Health.

The dental school has approached me about putting together the University's Undergrad Endodontic Program. After giving it some considerable thought, I have decided to move forward and commit my time to this cause. I feel that it is very important. I invite you to follow my journey over the next couple weeks as I share my stories and attempt to make a difference in endodontics amongst the Jamaican population. I hope you will also spread the word and help me bring awareness to what is going on with the local people in one of everyone's top vacation spots.

With warm regards
Dr. G