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Outreach Programs Volunteers provide  services to patients around the world who might not otherwise receive sophisticated treatment. Medical supplies are donated to assist with treatment and rehabilitation. Outreach Programs have been established in Viet Nam, Mongolia, Bolivia, Thailand,  and Sierra Leone, and the USA.

International Conferences

 Next Meeting
         Bangkok, Thailand (2008)

  Past Meetings
     Maui, Hawaii (2006)

        Maastricht, Netherlands (2004)
        Okinawa, Japan (2002)
        Kauai, Hawaii (2000)
        Turin, Italy (1998)
        Seoul, Korea (1996)
        Palm Springs, CA USA (1994)

Bolivia
February 3-11, 2005

ISMR volunteer, Dr Rex Raper recently traveled to La Paz, Bolivia with medical supplies and equipment. Dr. Raper works at the Maxillofacial Department, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. He and his wife, Lois, work as a team with missionaries from the Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio that have been in La Paz for over 17 years.  The missionaries give the volunteers access into several communities and groups of very impoverished people. At the jungle camps there may be access to electricity to power a portable unit, but it is usually very primitive working conditions. The only dental treatment most of these people ever get is extractions and usually only when someone from the outside makes it available.

Dr. Rex Raper and Lois left on February 3rd and arrived in LaPaz (14,000ft) the following morning, suffering from the change in altitude.  The next morning,  they traveled to a camp in the Yungas jungle, 11,000 feet in elevation down from LaPaz, and an ultimate cure for altitude sickness.

We arrived in camp, a jungle rain forest, at about noon and Maryann Crowder, a new friend and dental hygienist that went with us, and I started setting up our portable dental clinic. The Aeseptico equipment was fantastic, but we had a couple of problems that we were able to overcome. We had running water for the first time in all of my trips. We set up the unit, the portable chair, and the light and began work.

So, about 48 hours after leaving Ohio we were ready to do dentistry in the heart of Bolivia. The people started coming and only stopped when the camp caretaker, Carlos, turned them away. The demand was overwhelming for our small team, but we did what we could do. I took enough supplies that I thought would last a week but  we ran out of anesthetic, gloves, gauze and other stuff in three days. Fortunately Kep was able to drive to a hospital a few hours down the river and they gave us a box of medium gloves and 50 carpules of 2% lidocaine 1:80,000 epi. That got us through. By Tuesday at noon I had treated almost 100 and extracted close to that many teeth and placed probably 25-30 IRM's.

Maryann was able to do prophys and clean teeth that had never even seen a toothbrush before. She would take patients that needed extractions, and clean them up while the anesthetic was getting them numb for whatever extraction they needed. We worked very well together. Lois assisted both of us while Roger cleaned and disinfected our instruments between patients. I was very impressed with how both Roger and Maryann, who had never been out of the country, were able to adapt to such extreme changes of altitude, temperature, and humidity while still smiling and non stop working. We saw patients on Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, Monday from 09:00 to 19:30 and then again on Tuesday morning from 08:00 to 13:30 before leaving the jungle to head back up to LaPaz.  The weather at camp was very hot and 100% humid with heavy off and on rain, after all it is tropical jungle, the rainy season, and summer. 

The drive of 11,000 ft back up the mountain was spectacular! There was so much rain while we were down in the jungle that there were waterfalls blasting out of the mountains in every direction, as gravity took it into the valleys to engorge the rivers.

Next, we headed up to El Alto, a city on the altoplana at about 14,500 ft, that is higher than any mountain in the Continental United States. With Dr. Raper feeling "under the weather" from the night before, they set up their little portable dental clinic, in a small health clinic. The people were already there and waiting, more than we could treat in a day.

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