Hurlburt dental team aids, trains west African countries

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ryan Whitney
  • 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) --  Two Airmen from Hurlburt Field recently returned to work after a one-month temporary duty assignment to west Africa in support of Exercise Flintlock, an annual exercise that focuses on improving interoperability between the militaries of the United States, Europe and northern and western African countries.

Capt. Tad Tholstrom and Staff Sgt. Leah Potter, a 1st Special Operations Medical Group dentist and dental technician respectively, participated in the 20-day exercise that began May 3.

They provided dental treatment to citizens of Senegal and Burkina Faso, while also training and educating local and military dentists from the African countries.

"The people we were supporting were in severely underdeveloped areas -- people that were living in mud huts and didn't have a lot of medical options," Sergeant Potter said. "Though we accomplished a lot while we were there, there is always that feeling that there is more you could do or more you could have done while you were there."

"Dental (care) is special in the form of treatment because, for the most part, we are able provide our patients with near-immediate relief," Captain Tholstrom said. "If a person comes to us with an abscessed tooth, we can provide on-the-spot treatment, and they won't have to worry about that pain anymore, as opposed to something that requires long-term treatment when the doctor will only be around for a few weeks."

One of the challenges the dental team faced was communicating with their patients. Even though they had a translator to decipher the French-speaking citizens' words, every town they went to spoke a different dialect, sometimes requiring two or three different translators to communicate effectively.

"Once you learned some of the key phrases and dialects for common sayings, you are able to build up that relationship and trust with them to be able to communicate with them, even if it is just a few sayings," Captain Tholstrom said.

Many of the patients they treated were treated for the usual toothaches, abscessed teeth, and infections. One case, however, involved a small child with a large tooth abscess that had expanded and was starting to obstruct his airway.

"This was one of the most severe cases I had seen, and if we hadn't helped this child, he probably wouldn't have survived," Sergeant Potter said. "For someone in the dental field, it's rare to say you've been able to save someone's life."

After treating patients and training and working with dentists in Senegal, the team then joined up with another Air Force Special Operations Command dental team from the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon Air Force Base, N. M., and traveled to the country of Burkina Faso to discuss different treatment philosophies and procedures, and to train and provide support to local military dental teams.

"The experience we had of helping so many less-fortunate people and improving their quality of life was an amazing experience," Captain Tholstrom said. "My only regret was I didn't get to help more people, but I hope to be able to go back in the future to continue what I started."