ALUMNI
SPOTLIGHTS
Taylor Phipps '11 I am currently a 4th-year dental student at the University of Southern California (USC) and plan to graduate in May 2020. I recently had the privilege to travel to Bocas Del Toro, Panama, to provide free dental care to local communities. This was with a program at USC called DHOP (Dental Humanitarian Outreach Program). The objective of this program is for USC dental students and faculty to come together and provide quality dental care in underserved areas around the world. Over the years, this group has traveled to Panama, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Kenya, and Philippines, to name a few. In December 2019, 48 students and 15 faculty members traveled to Panama to help the community of Bocas Del Toro. My dad was one of the faculty members (a current practicing dentist) that joined our group on this trip. I will always be grateful for getting to spend time working and learning from him while sharing this experience together. This specific place in Panama consists of many little islands with boats being the primary means of transportation. This detail turned out to be a very difficult task when transporting all of the equipment, luggage, sanitizing units, and everything else that goes into setting up a full clinic. In a few short hours, our group turned a community gymnasium into a clinic of 24 operating chairs. These chairs were used for procedures including oral surgery and extractions, fillings, root canals, and cleanings. We were all responsible for transporting certain items in order to arrive and depart with what was needed. Our group worked for six days starting around 7 a.m. and ending around 9 p.m. There was no air conditioning and the humidity reached 98% on certain days. Patients were boated to and from the clinic on the main island throughout the week and they shared how desperately they needed dental care. During our time there, we saw 704 patients and provided 1,964 procedures. The free dental work given to patients would amass to $396,507 total.
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