Toothbrush, Toothpaste, and Dinosaur Floss

Yesterday we packaged up all of the dental health bags for our trip to Guatemala! With only 5 days left preparation is getting down to the wire.

In each bag we packaged a toothbrush, toothpaste, bar of soap, and floss with a dinosaur on it. (I wonder which piece the kids will like the most ;) ). We also attended a lecture to understand the impact of this intervention. One of my advisers has been to central America close to 20X and dental hygiene is a huge epidemic. Although teeth may not seem as important as other body organs, dental health correlates with numerous co-morbid diseases as well as risk of infection. Teaching a child to brush their teeth is a simple act that can have a huge impact.

We also learned the proper way to apply fluoride varnish onto the children's teeth in order to give them a kick start to proper dental hygiene. Many of children may only have a few good teeth to work with but saving one tooth is better than saving none.

We're estimated to see over 700 children during our time in Guatemala, but with the help of many organizations and awesome people that donated their supplies, we have OVER that amount of resources! I can't wait to take these goody bags down to Zacapa and show the children how awesome this simple task is (or at least get them to smile at the dinosaur floss).