Well…..we are flying out tomorrow and back to our homes in the wonderful USA. I think we are all ready to get back to our lives. I know that this entire experience won’t completely hit me until I get home and am able to reflect on our time in Jamaica.

I’ve learned so many interesting things while asking about life in Jamaica. One word I would use to describe the people of Jamaica: PROUD. They love life and don’t stress the little things. The locals said that the government is very corrupt and no money from tourism trickles down to the people and because of this, some people are very rich while most are extremely poor. There is only one electric company and they charge whatever they want, therefore, the cost of electricity is very expensive. As far as dental related things, I found a lot of things very different from dental services in the States. For example, the US uses water to deliver dental cavity prevention in the form of fluoride. Jamaica doesn’t have a regulated water system and most of the island gets their water from rainwater. So in 1985, the Ministry of Health started putting fluoride in their table salt. This caused a decrease in childhood cavities (97% of all children to less than 20%) over a 10 year period.

Dental services are needed so badly in Jamaica. Most Jamaicans can’t afford private dental care so they have to get public care. Which means first come-first serve and a lot of waiting in lines for unreliable care. There is 1 dentist for every 53,000 people. So you can imagine the lines being VERY long.

This has been such an amazing experience! It has been A LOT of hard work and it was so worth it. All six of us students kept track of how many patients we had and the services we provided them. We calculated the average price in the states for those services. Each of us provided around (some a little under, some over) $20,000 of free dental service to the people of Jamaica this week! That’s at least $120,000 of dental care to people who desperately need it. That was just for the six students, not including the rest of the group of doctors, etc. Most of us are already planning on going back next year and making this a yearly trip we all make. We are so proud to be a part of the Study Abroad program and we are going to be the pioneers for this program to help it become a permanent thing at SPC. We are so lucky to have had this opportunity to represent the SPC Dental Hygiene program.

So sad it’s over…..but I will NEVER take for granted what the US has to offer. It is truly the  land of opportunity.

One love,

Molly Espino, SPC Dental Hygiene Student