Winter 2012 - College of Dental Medicine - Columbia University

SCHOOL NEWS | off campus
CDM Brings Oral Health Care
to Remote Burundi Village
Kigitu villagers and community workers at the health center eagerly sought the Columbia doctors' recommendation
for everday habits to insure good oral health.
Last March, four CDM faculty, accompanied by eight large
boxes, arrived in Burundi, one of Africa's tiniest countries
and one of the poorest in the world. The four dentists were
Dr. Steven Chussid, chairman, Section of Growth and
Development, and director, Division of Pediatric Dentistry;
Dr. David Koslovsky, assistant professor, Division of Oral and
Maxillofacial Surgery; Dr. Doron Ringler, chief resident in Oral
and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Dr. Steven Syrop, associate
professor, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The boxes
were filled with all the instruments and supplies* needed to set up
an entire oral surgery clinic in the Burundi village of Kigitu.
The first visit by dentists with modern equipment to visit this
beautiful but impoverished spot originated with the amazing
story of Deogratias Niyizonkiza, an escapee from the genocide
resulting from 1990s conflict between Hutu and Tutsi tribes in
Burundi. Deo's determination to complete his education brought
him first to New York and Columbia University. Later, while earning
a public health degree at Harvard, he met Dr. Paul Farmer, founder
of Partners in Health, a
community-based public
health organization. Working
with Dr. Farmer in Haiti and
Rwanda inspired Deo to
establish a health cooperative
for Kigitu, the village
where his parents now
lived. In only nine months,
his community partnership,
called Village Health Works,
(VHW) was successfully
treating more than 16,000
patients—for everything but
dental disease. Burundi, a
country of approximately
ten million people has an
astonishingly small number
of dentists, making even
substandard dental care
rare. Dental emergencies
are often brought to traditional
“healers” who typically
break off the crown of
the tooth, leaving the root
in the gums. As a result,
Burundians can experience
both great pain and the
prospect of oral disease that
could lead to even more
severe health problems.
* Dental instruments and medical supplies were generously provided by Henry Schein, KLS Martin, and the Stryker company.
12 primus | winter 2012-13