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Dental:
In the
first months of working here at the Clinic of the Smiles Complex,
people were coming with all kinds of pains, infections, and other
diseases, but while they were sitting in the dental chair for
assessing what was needed for them, first they saw the injection, and
then they were jumping out!
Especially the children were very scared of what could happen to them,
but with a lot of understanding and kind words we were able to
reassure them. Almost all of the children, 116 currently on our
register, have problems with decay, infections, tartar, gingival
problems, abscise and teeth that are about to change depending on the
age of the child.
 We
started our work here in October 2008 and as hard as it was at
that time to convince the children that was vital for them to be
consulted by the dentist, it’s easy now for us to work with almost of
them. They are good kids, but they definitely need to be educated to
come to the dentist regularly, because even now, they often only come
when the crisis with the pain of the teeth appears.
The work here at Tileagd, with the Gypsy people, is not an easy job to
do, because they need to be educated in basic hygiene, to take care of
their teeth and such things that they don’t normally do. Until they
start coming to the Smiles Nursery or School, most of them don’t even
know the taste of the toothpaste, because they never brush their
teeth. They are coming to the dentist only when the teeth cannot
be extracted at home. It is extremely difficult to work with such
factors but is worthy for the possibilities we believe are within
reach.
Starting with this summer, while children are in their summer
vacation, we started to work with the parents of these children. Most
of them are coming with difficult problems of teeth, like infections,
tartar, abscise or even lack of teeth, or they need canal treatment.
We also observed why the children didn’t come before to the dentist,
and that is because of their parents, who are not used to visit the
dentist, even to brush their teeth, so the children are learning from
their parents what to do, even what is wrong. The Smiles Foundation
endeavours to change many things within the Tileagd Community but
every aspect begins with education.
Dr Calin Scurt
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 Optometry:
Much progress was made in the
Vision Project during the June Mission Trip. During his first
week, UK Optometrist Advisor, Chris Calow visited Smiles families
with Social Workers, Angie and Marius, which presented Chris with
the new challenges of checking people’s vision in an alleyway and in a
caravan. He also spent two days in Gepiu, seeing about 40 people
there.
He was joined by Howard Dick, another English Optometrist,
 for
the second week when they both worked at Tileagd, Chris was mainly
involved with eye examinations for local people, while Howard
installed a lens edger in the workshop and then continued his training
of Aurica, a young woman from the Roma community. Four years ago,
Aurica could not read or write; now she is able to use the machines
and do most of the processes and will be glazing lenses into frames on
her own during the next few weeks.
Most people from Gepiu and the Smiles families were able to receive
their glasses before Chris and Howard left Romania, such was the
success of the workshop.
Looking to the future, Chris hopes to continue visiting and working
alongside Romanians to raise the standard of eye-care. His long-term
vision is to have a mobile Optometry Vehicle able to provide eye-care
in the more remote villages of Bihor
County. |
