China
Trip to China.
June, 2010
From Dr. Karl Koerner
In the last few years, we have conducted three trips to a small city in China (Suqian in Jiangsu Province) to conduct dental humanitarian projects. A report on them is given below.
In May of 2011, another trip is scheduled – this time to Xian (home of the terracotta warriors). We are planning to work in a pediatric hospital, taking a team of general dentists and plastic surgeons to do general dentistry and cleft lips and palates.
A trip is also tentatively scheduled in Oct. 2011 to Suqian again.
If interested, call Dr. Karl Koerner at 801-502-8585. karlrkoerner@comcast.net.
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Reports of previous trips.
In October of 2009, we conducted our third 10-day dental humanitarian project to Suqian, China. Suqian is a small city (by China standards) northwest of Nanjing without an airport or train station. Twenty-three people went — including 13 dentists (7 of whom spoke Mandarin Chinese), 3 hygienists, a CRNA, and other support personnel. Among the dentists were one prosthodontist, an endodontist, and an orthodontist. We also had a plastic surgeon participate.
Some of those involved went last year and the year before but were anxious to do it again. The local people are so welcoming and accommodating. The president of the dental hospital literally turns 6-7 operatories over to us for the week we are there. We get to work in modern (well, mostly modern) facilities treating people who normally don’t get treated – primarily indigent students and orphans. We do restorative, simple endo, oral surgery, and hygiene. We also teach mini-courses to local dentists and do a lot of public relations among the local population.
Dr. Geoff Williams, our plastic surgeon, and our CRNA performed nine cleft lip/palate surgeries on babies plus some revision surgeries on older kids. We left on a Friday night and returned nine days later on a Sunday afternoon. It’s a great cultural and professional experience. We won’t be going to Suqian again for about a year but will go somewhere else in China in the meantime.
Contact Dr. Karl Koerner (801-502-8585), email (drkoerner@q.com) or Dr. Adam Hodges (208-316-2307), (ahodges@fhsid.com) with any questions.
