Employer-sponsored trips to the Caribbean. Some might call that a boondoggle, but not in the case of one Bellevue dental practice.
Dr. C.R. Anderegg has paid for his staff to visit Jamaica for the past three years – to do humanitarian work.
It’s hardly a vacation. Anderegg and his four employees served 120 patients during their last visit, which took place Nov. 9-13.
Sugar cane is a staple in the Jamaican diet, so it’s not hard to imagine what most of the patients’ teeth looked like.
“By the time they’re adults, their teeth are literally rotted to the gum line,” Anderegg said. “You basically ask what hurts the most and take it out.”
Extractions accounted for most of the work Anderegg and his crew did along with dozens of other dental professionals who joined this year for the annual 1000 Smiles humanitarian project.
The program, organized by a non-profit group called Great Shape, provides exams, cleanings, sealants and extractions for impoverished people living in Jamaica, where there is one dentist for every 80,000 people in rural parts of the country.
Three waves of volunteers land on the island each year to provide free dental service in Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Negril.
Anderegg’s group traveled this time around to Ocho Rios, where 1000 Smiles workers completed 827 cleanings, 1,148 filings, and 1,750 extractions in one week.
“It’s the total opposite of what we deal with in Bellevue,” Anderegg said. “It’s not just dental, it’s a health issue. A lot of the time we’re getting rid of infection.”
The trip wasn’t all work for Anderegg’s entourage. The group managed to visit a few waterfalls and Reggae bars. A few volunteers even went cliff diving.
“There’s a little bit of time, but we’re normally too tired to do anything but sleep at the end of the day,” Anderegg said.
Volunteers for the 1000 Smiles program pay their own way to Jamaica, while the Sandals Foundation, a philanthropic wing of the Sandals resort company, provides lodging.
“It’s an amazing partnership,” said Heidi Clarke, coordinator of the Sandals Foundation. “Great Shape has the volunteers and the expertise, and we have the accommodations.”
Great Shape, founded in 1988, includes two other humanitarian programs: the SuperKids literacy project and the iCare vision initiative.
