Article by Garrett Kenyon.
Looking at 12-year-old Lilibeth, you wouldn’t think she’d ever had serious problems with her teeth. But this teen from Barranquilla, Colombia, owes the brightness of her smile to dental benefits she received through sponsorship.
At age 5, Lilibeth started experiencing throbbing toothaches. “She used to wake at night with toothaches,” recalls Lilibeth’s mother, Vilma.
Vilma could have taken Lilibeth to a free public health clinic, but she’d had bad experiences there in the past that she wasn’t anxious to repeat. And Vilma couldn’t see anything wrong. “From the outside, Lilibeth’s teeth looked fine,” she recalls.
“It’s common for parents to avoid taking their children to dentists, more due to their own fears than the child’s,” says Araceli Angarita, Children International’s health coordinator in Barranquilla. “The child’s fear stems from anxiety transmitted by parents who have had bad experiences [with dentists].
"Another situation is that parents don’t teach their children good oral health – not even simple brushing. They only take the child to their first dental appointment when their teeth are full of cavities. How can we imagine these children will go to a dentist’s office without fear or anxiety?”
Sponsorship allowed Lilibeth’s mother to get her daughter the dental care she needed.
But luckily for Lilibeth, her mom did something else that ended up helping: she enrolled Lilibeth in sponsorship.
Dr. Yisseth Sanchez was a dentist with the Colombian Air Force before joining CI.
Children International takes a holistic approach to oral health. When children first enroll, they’re invited to a group activity to learn about proper oral care and encouraged to make an appointment with the agency dentist.
At that first appointment, the dentist spends time making sure the child is comfortable before beginning the exam. He shows the child models of healthy teeth and explains the different instruments.
“The dentist works to gain the child’s trust, with the goal of motivating the child to come to her next appointment without any problems,” Araceli explains.
The agency dentist who treated Lilibeth was Dr. Henry Marenco. After his initial examination, he explained to Lilibeth and her mother that two of Lilibeth’s teeth were almost completely hollowed out by cavities.There were problems with other teeth, too, but they could be fixed.
Dr. Marenco repaired the cavities and asked Lilibeth and Vilma to return to his clinic every two weeks. It was a big commitment, but Lilibeth and Vilma agreed to do it – and, within a few months, Lilibeth’s mouth was healthy again.
Vilma was determined to keep it that way. “Besides Lilibeth’s dental appointments, it’s been very important for her to participate in the oral-health workshops organized by the agency,” Vilma says. “I went with her to one where an oral hygienist taught her how to brush and gave her a revealing pill to see if she had plaque.”
Bad experiences can alter the way people feel about dentists for the rest of their lives, but Lilibeth is proof that good experiences can too. “I like going to the agency dentist,” she says. “Now I don’t feel bad when I smile because my teeth are healthy!”
Photos and reporting assistance by Patricia Calderón.
“We invest in dental services because good oral health can positively impact overall health and nutrition. Kids are more likely to be confident and have better self-esteem when they have healthy smiles.”
– Kathryn Phelps,
CI’s program director
