Dental team keeps mission going for Special Operations Forces troops, brings smiles to villagers in Heart

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

04.14.2009

Courtesy Story

U.S. Forces Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — The old man smiled, showing the only two teeth left in his mouth. He is happy because a coalition dentist just pulled the last rotten tooth from his mouth. Life is suddenly much more pleasant for him.

The man is Arbov Zacharia, the 52 year-old elder of Qanati village, and he was the first, of more than 180 people, to get his teeth pulled by a Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan dental team at a Special Operations Forces clinic near Firebase Thomas in Shindand District, Herat province.

"The village elder made another appointment to come in and shake my hand," said the CJSOTF-A dentist. "He kept pointing at the extraction site and giving me the thumbs up. It's nice to know your work is appreciated," he added.

"There is no dentist in my village. The people have to travel to Shindand or Herat and it costs a lot of money," Zacharia said. He said he is very happy that the coalition forces brought a dental team to the bi-weekly clinic.

Pulling teeth for locals is a nice secondary effect of having the dental team at Firebase Thomas. The primary reason for the dental team is to treat coalition personnel, and to keep the missions going.

"We had a team guy who lost a filling, and, although it wasn't causing him any pain, if it [had] cracked while we were out on [a mission] he would have required medical treatment and that would have been two guys out of the fight," said a Special Forces team leader. The CJSOTF-A physician's assistant requested a dental team to fly out and help.

"Most of them [team guys] weren't having any pain. They just came in for exams and that's when I found infected teeth," said the dentist, about a Special Forces team.

"The biggest thing I can bring is that I can treat them and they don't have to interrupt operations. They can get back to the fight," said the CJSOTF-A dental technician, about his ability to travel around the battlefield treating SOF members.

"I had them take care of all U.S. personnel first," said the PA. "Then the interpreters and the Afghan security guards. They are the guys who protect us at night, so it's important to take care of them," said the physician's assistant.

"We lose two to four commandos a week due to dental problems," said the physician's assistant. "They did surgical extractions, fillings, wisdom teeth ... we ran the whole gamut," he said.

"We pulled almost 90 teeth," said the dentist about working on the commandos. "That's going to have an impact because those soldiers will be mission ready," he added.

The technician gave the commando leadership a dental hygiene class, which will prevent future disease and keep the commandos out of the dental chair and in the fight.

"I have a saying, 'give a man a fish....," said an SF team leader with a laugh, before he went on to talk about the dental team training his SF medics. "Our guys need to have continuing education and having a qualified dental team do it helps."

"The [team medics] got re-trained on extractions and dental nerve blocks," said the physician's assistant. Now they can continue to help their teammates and create a positive impression on the local population when they help them.

"If you don't do it for a while you get rusty," said the dental technician. He added that after a little side-by-side training the medics got back into the swing of things and ended up pulling five teeth. The medics will not only be able to extract teeth, if need be, but they can also do temporary fillings to patch people up until they can get to a dentist.

Back at the clinic the team got to spend an additional day pulling teeth, passing out toothpaste, toothbrushes, mixing with the locals and teaching people how to care for their teeth.

• Date Taken: 04.14.2009
• Date Posted: 04.14.2009 15:21
• Story ID: 32390
• Location: KABUL, AF