Thailand - Post-Tsunami

.......................We start screening the youngest children first. I was immediately stunned by what I saw. After about 10 children, I didn't even have to look at the mouth to know I would fill in all eight deciduous molars with red pencil on a chart. The decay was rampant, but the overall hygiene was pretty good. I looked at six-year-olds and thought, “How can you eat? They can't possibly be getting proper nutrition if they can't chew fibrous foods.” I saw so many teeth broken down to the root. I didn't see one or two displaced permanent teeth, I saw whole rows of displaced teeth. I had never seen anything like it. My initial dismay turned into adrenalin. I felt absolutely compelled to chart as many children as possible, and we screened nearly 400 children altogether.
What I tried to do is prioritize the children in a very simplistic way. Ninety percent of the children had obvious decay. This diagnosis was made without the assistance of radiographs. Sixty percent probably have rampant decay, and about 15 percent had situations I labeled as severe. Many of these children came from very poor families, and malnutrition contributed to their fragile enamel. Some children in rural areas of Thailand have weakened enamel due to an overabundance of fluoride in their well water. ................................