education

Although I think I realized this a very long time ago, I am just blogging about it. The answer to many issues in Peru in the health care system is education. When we go to the school it is so sad to see these children under the age of 12 with teeth rotting out. We do fluoride every once and a while, but it is a bit odd. The government pays for fluoride to be given four times a year... every three months. Unfortunatly, things at our medical center get pushed back, and everything in Peru seems to be quite slow, so they end up giving fluoride every month for four months... well in the states, we know that giving too much fluoride is actually damaging to the teeth. Education and planning ahead would make this more efficient and beneficial. It also may be more sufficient to give out toothbrushes and toothpaste as well as educate patients on how to properally brush their teeth to prevent cavities and decay. I also sat in on a patient of the dentist who came in the medical center with a very small cavity and a bit of pain in her gums. Instead of filling it (as they should have and probably would have done) she requested that the extract the entire tooth. A bit extreme for something that could have been fixed quite easily and quickly. Again, a bit of education would have been helpful for her.

Because it is a medical center, we care for all types of patients. A big portion of our patients are mothers and their children. They give birth to children there (as I have mentioned in a previous blog) as well as have their monthly checkups. What is hard for me to grasp is the fact that we have soooo many girls ranging from 15 years old to 20 years old with one or two children already. The center that I work in is paid for by the government so the care is free. I do not understand why the government would want to pay so much money for free births and care to keep populating such a poor area that is already overpopulated with mothers who have so many children they cannot feed (I have seen one mother with 7 children at the age of 45). We all know now that preaching abstinence does not work, but wouldn´t it be cheaper to provide free condoms and education instead of health care for life of a child that is not necessarily wanted or cannot be provided for? Anyways...just a few thoughts....its been interesting