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Teethsavers Newsletter January 2012
Firmly Established on 2 Continents—Africa and Central America
Teethsavers Mission — To introduce and facilitate the provision of simple and
inexpensive dental care for children—being careful to always give the credit to God
inexpensive dental care for children—being careful to always give the credit to God
Much has happened in 2011 with
Teethsavers around the world. God continues to stretch our borders. Our
goal continues to be three-fold: to teach a few to teach many, to
provide dental care and oral hygiene training, and to tell of the love
of Jesus for the poor children in developing countries around the world.
Our Board of Directors has had some changes. We are saddened to lose Mike Cunningham and Helen Pope who have served us faithfully as our financial advisors and accountants for several years. We have been fortunate to add Robert Seymore, CPA, and Ron Smith, DDS, Oral Surgeon to our Board in December 2011. Jack Rudd remains our Field Director, Tracy Ebarb our Executive Director, Beth Lee, President, Ted Kingsbery, Executive Secretary and Gene Day, David Midkiff, DDS, and Susan Hunter as Board Members. Please feel free to contact any of us at any time. Fredson Sambani is our country director for Malawi. Alan Oliva is our Supervisor and Dr. Bismark Rivera, DDS, is our Dental Instructor for our Teethsavers School in Jinotega, Nicaragua. Keith Rodgers is our WPC sponsored Missionary and Field Director for Teethsavers in the San Juan Del Sur area in Nicaragua. Dr. Patric Davis, DDS, is our Liaison and Training Instructor in Sierra Leone.
Fredson Sambani was interviewed on Malawi national radio for Teethsavers in Malawi. Fredson and his wife Gertrude had their first child, a son named Shawn, in December 2011. They all live on the premises of Teethsavers in Lilongwe. We were fortunate to get two of our trained operators back from Zambia to Malawi after much government red tape. Fredson's brother had been filling in for us while we struggled to get these people back, and we owe him a big Thank You. The Malawi team was able to see and treat thousands of children in all the Dowa villages of Malawi this year, in addition to gaining national recognition at seminars. A team headed by Gene Day will be going to Malawi in March 2012. It will include dentists and others interested in mission work. They will go out to the villages with the team and see Teethsavers in action.
Keith Rodgers and his wife now have 4 trained operators and will soon be hiring an assistant. They saw 20,000 children the past year. They have faced some unusual difficulties with armed encounters going to the mountain villages (government soldiers looking for drug runners) and having to hike 3 miles into a mountain village only to find the school closed. BUT, with God's help, neighbor children rounded up all the school children, and they were able to complete the treatment and teaching they had planned to do there.
Twelve students graduated from our Teethsavers Six-Year Molar Focus School in Jinotega, Nicaragua on December 10, 2011. These students are returning to their home districts now to teach and treat the children in their area. We will continue to partner with these graduates as they begin seeing children on their own in their own districts. Dr. Rudd, Joan Sears and Susan Hunter hope to be going to Jinotega to help the graduates get started in their own districts, go on a river trip to remote villages that cannot be reached by land to examine and treat children there, and go to San Juan Del Sur to see Keith Rodgers and his Teethsavers team in action there. In Sierra Leone, we had a rough start up class this past year as Dr. Rudd had just completed the academic portion of their training when he became ill and had to be transported back to Lubbock for medical treatment. Dr. Patric Davis is continuing the practicum portion of their training. These students should graduate the end of February. Dr. Rudd and Tracy Ebarb will be going to Sierra Leone then for their graduation and to ensure that Teethsavers has firmly established their NGO status for Sierra Leone so these graduates can be employed by the government. Ethiopia is looming on the horizon and some government officials there have expressed a strong interest in having Dr Rudd come and initiate the training process there for Teethsavers. The possibility of this is totally in God's hands as we do not have the funding for this. Our donations for 2011 dropped off significantly, as they did for many non-profit organizations, but by the grace of God, and thanks to you, our donors, we were able to make it through the year debt free. We'll need your help to fund Teethsavers work in 2012. Our Executive Director, Tracy Ebarb, in addition to planning many presentations, has initiated a Pay Partner Pal Program with several dental offices which we hope will increase contributions. If you have a dental practice and might be interested in this, please email Tracy Ebarb at tsebarb@verizon.net. Dr Rudd is also available for consultation at jackruddteethsavers@gmail.com
Our Board of Directors has had some changes. We are saddened to lose Mike Cunningham and Helen Pope who have served us faithfully as our financial advisors and accountants for several years. We have been fortunate to add Robert Seymore, CPA, and Ron Smith, DDS, Oral Surgeon to our Board in December 2011. Jack Rudd remains our Field Director, Tracy Ebarb our Executive Director, Beth Lee, President, Ted Kingsbery, Executive Secretary and Gene Day, David Midkiff, DDS, and Susan Hunter as Board Members. Please feel free to contact any of us at any time. Fredson Sambani is our country director for Malawi. Alan Oliva is our Supervisor and Dr. Bismark Rivera, DDS, is our Dental Instructor for our Teethsavers School in Jinotega, Nicaragua. Keith Rodgers is our WPC sponsored Missionary and Field Director for Teethsavers in the San Juan Del Sur area in Nicaragua. Dr. Patric Davis, DDS, is our Liaison and Training Instructor in Sierra Leone.
Fredson Sambani was interviewed on Malawi national radio for Teethsavers in Malawi. Fredson and his wife Gertrude had their first child, a son named Shawn, in December 2011. They all live on the premises of Teethsavers in Lilongwe. We were fortunate to get two of our trained operators back from Zambia to Malawi after much government red tape. Fredson's brother had been filling in for us while we struggled to get these people back, and we owe him a big Thank You. The Malawi team was able to see and treat thousands of children in all the Dowa villages of Malawi this year, in addition to gaining national recognition at seminars. A team headed by Gene Day will be going to Malawi in March 2012. It will include dentists and others interested in mission work. They will go out to the villages with the team and see Teethsavers in action.
Keith Rodgers and his wife now have 4 trained operators and will soon be hiring an assistant. They saw 20,000 children the past year. They have faced some unusual difficulties with armed encounters going to the mountain villages (government soldiers looking for drug runners) and having to hike 3 miles into a mountain village only to find the school closed. BUT, with God's help, neighbor children rounded up all the school children, and they were able to complete the treatment and teaching they had planned to do there.
Twelve students graduated from our Teethsavers Six-Year Molar Focus School in Jinotega, Nicaragua on December 10, 2011. These students are returning to their home districts now to teach and treat the children in their area. We will continue to partner with these graduates as they begin seeing children on their own in their own districts. Dr. Rudd, Joan Sears and Susan Hunter hope to be going to Jinotega to help the graduates get started in their own districts, go on a river trip to remote villages that cannot be reached by land to examine and treat children there, and go to San Juan Del Sur to see Keith Rodgers and his Teethsavers team in action there. In Sierra Leone, we had a rough start up class this past year as Dr. Rudd had just completed the academic portion of their training when he became ill and had to be transported back to Lubbock for medical treatment. Dr. Patric Davis is continuing the practicum portion of their training. These students should graduate the end of February. Dr. Rudd and Tracy Ebarb will be going to Sierra Leone then for their graduation and to ensure that Teethsavers has firmly established their NGO status for Sierra Leone so these graduates can be employed by the government. Ethiopia is looming on the horizon and some government officials there have expressed a strong interest in having Dr Rudd come and initiate the training process there for Teethsavers. The possibility of this is totally in God's hands as we do not have the funding for this. Our donations for 2011 dropped off significantly, as they did for many non-profit organizations, but by the grace of God, and thanks to you, our donors, we were able to make it through the year debt free. We'll need your help to fund Teethsavers work in 2012. Our Executive Director, Tracy Ebarb, in addition to planning many presentations, has initiated a Pay Partner Pal Program with several dental offices which we hope will increase contributions. If you have a dental practice and might be interested in this, please email Tracy Ebarb at tsebarb@verizon.net. Dr Rudd is also available for consultation at jackruddteethsavers@gmail.com
From Behind the Six Year Molar
If you would like to make a donation to Teethsavers, please mail it to: Teethsavers International, Inc., 3306 - 34th St, Lubbock, TX 79410. You may call for more information at 806-368-713 or 806-799-3621. Teethsavers is a 501(c)3 non-profit agency and all donations are tax deductible and will be very much appreciated. You can also go to the Teethsavers Website at teethsaversinternational.org and make a donation on line.
Tooth Decay is the MOST PREVALENT
CHILDHOOD DISEASE in the world. Dental plaque is a soft, colorless and
sticky substance containing bacteria that forms on everyone's teeth and
can cause tooth decay and/or periodontal disease if not mechanically
broken up with brushing at least daily.
Dr Rudd's studies in Nepal and Zambia of 1,030 six-year molars of children in grades 1-3 showed that in 96% of these permanent six-year molars with decay, the decay was not extensive in the dentin and these molars could easily be filled with the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART). This revolutionary new treatment needs no electricity or anesthetic and can be done with minimal training. The procedure is remarkably simple, efficient and cheap. This revolutionary approach has been used extensively in developing countries in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the World Dental Federation. It was developed by Dr. Jo Frencken, DDS, MSc, PhD, a dental researcher in the Netherlands. He has been on our International Advisory Board since 2005. He looks to our Teethsavers schools to train ART operators as we are the only ones teaching graduates to do this full-time.
Dr Rudd's studies in Nepal and Zambia of 1,030 six-year molars of children in grades 1-3 showed that in 96% of these permanent six-year molars with decay, the decay was not extensive in the dentin and these molars could easily be filled with the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART). This revolutionary new treatment needs no electricity or anesthetic and can be done with minimal training. The procedure is remarkably simple, efficient and cheap. This revolutionary approach has been used extensively in developing countries in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the World Dental Federation. It was developed by Dr. Jo Frencken, DDS, MSc, PhD, a dental researcher in the Netherlands. He has been on our International Advisory Board since 2005. He looks to our Teethsavers schools to train ART operators as we are the only ones teaching graduates to do this full-time.
If you would like to make a donation to Teethsavers, please mail it to: Teethsavers International, Inc., 3306 - 34th St, Lubbock, TX 79410. You may call for more information at 806-368-713 or 806-799-3621. Teethsavers is a 501(c)3 non-profit agency and all donations are tax deductible and will be very much appreciated. You can also go to the Teethsavers Website at teethsaversinternational.org and make a donation on line.
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