Former Bethel dentist brings smiles to poor children in Vietnam

MANDY STEBBINS

July 24, 2008 at 4:18PM AKST

He’s gone from a world of musk ox to water buffalo, from rolling tundra to rice fields, from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to Mekong Delta.

Dr. Fritz Craft worked as a dentist in Bethel for 15 years before establishing a humanitarian dental clinic in Vietnam for the East Meets West Foundation. In March, he led a volunteer mission to the clinic in Da Nang with a group of current and former Bethel dentists.

Treating children in Vietnam gave new meaning to the phrase “access to care.” Poor children who are sick or in pain have limited options.

One place they can turn is the nonprofit organization East Meets West Foundation. This American-based, nongovernmental organization runs many free programs that provide safe water to villages, schools for disabled children, birthing centers and orphanages. It was founded by Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese-American whose story was told by Oliver Stone in the movie “Heaven and Earth.”

In 1995, Craft helped East Meets West set up a dental program for poor and disabled children. His goal is to eventually turn over the clinic to the Vietnamese staff, whom he trained in the latest techniques.

The Vietnamese and volunteer staff have gone from seeing 1,500 patients a year in 1995 to 10,500 in 2007.  The clinic celebrated its 50,000th patient during the visit by Craft’s team.  

The similarities between providing dental treatment in Bush Alaska and in this Vietnamese clinic are remarkable. Craft modeled his program on what he learned in Bethel.

In addition to his Vietnam dental program, Craft is in the process of teaching the military how to conduct low-cost, high-impact medical and dental humanitarian missions in areas of unrest. The purpose of these trips is to prevent violence before it starts by facilitating goodwill and communication.

The Vietnamese showed marked friendliness toward the American dental team. A villager explained to Craft that his country had experienced conflict for centuries, so it understood war. Yet even during the fighting, Americans had tried to help improve conditions in the hamlets by building roads, erecting schools and conducting medical missions.

To poor people, they offered hope for a better future. The dental mission was a continuation of that basic humanitarian assistance effort.

During the trip, the team traveled out to a remote school and set up portable equipment, just like in the Bush. The team brought bottled water and a generator since electricity was unreliable.

The dentistry was done assembly-line style. One dentist screened children, another anesthetized, a third placed fillings and cleaned teeth, and the last one performed extractions.

There were six Alaska and two Vietnamese dentists working in one room, and more than 100 patients were treated a day for five days.

The children had never seen a dentist before and may not have a chance to do so again. They generally had a lot of decayed teeth from chewing sugarcane. The team concentrated on saving permanent teeth and eliminating infection.

The delicately beautiful children came in wearing their best clothes and usually did not make a peep throughout treatment. They later thanked the team members through mouthfuls of gauze.

Mandy Stebbins joined the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp.’s dental department in August 2004. She graduated with honors from Oregon Health and Science University with a Doctor of Dental Medicine degree in June 2004.