What's Spanish for "Open Wide"?

One of the 158 patients the Dentistas sin Limites examined during their volunteer work at Akany Avoko.

Sep. 11, 2010 text by Chad Lebo, photos by Lorna Gillespie

There are some happy and healthy mouths around Akany Avoko that would like to say gracias to a band of very generous Spanish dentists. Volunteers from Dentistas sin Limites (Dentists Unliminted) travelled and examined their way across Madagascar for three weeks.

The dentists were a kind and charitable lot. They paid for their own expenses and all dental treatment was provided for free.

This was most certainly a working vacation. During their stay, the busy dentists treated over 1,400 patients. And 158 of those were treated at Akany. Not all were Akany kids. Four other child  centers were invited to Akany to take advantage of the generous care. Out of those treated at Akany, 45% were clean and cavity free, 15% had to have teeth extracted, and 40% of the children needed further care. Many of those requiring more care were not from Akany but from the other visiting centers.

All of their kind and professional care was greatly appreciated. Now all the children can go back to chewing carefully around the stones in the rice.

What? I doubt you look terribly excited in the dentist's waiting room either.