CANADIAN DENTAL RELIEF INTERNATIONAL
We are a group of Canadian dentists and volunteers who provide free dental services as well as dental health education to marginalized people from isolated communities. We also seek to train local health workers in emergency dental care, so that they may continue to serve their community after we leave.
It all began with four friends, Dr. Humeres, Yung, Kreher, and Eckert who met at University of Toronto while studying dentistry.
The team organized a dental health project in the jungle of Ecuador. After that life changing experience the group decided to continue with these projects and later created CDRI.
Donations are accepted at Canada Helps:
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/canadian-dental-relief-international/
Roatan - Honduras 2023
Our first trip back since the start of the pandemic! We worked in two locations. The first was a community who lived in and off the local landfill while the second served as a sea village where people from nearby small islands could come for treatments. Questionable roads and variable electrical current for the drills were overcome and our team was able to provide a wide range of care to the people of Roatan.
RAPA NUI - EASTER ISLAND (2019)
The expectations were surpassed! We examined 631 patients and performed 907 different treatments on them. These included 1226 dental surfaces of composite and amalgam restorations; extractions, simple and surgical; several root canal therapies and over 45 periodontal treatments.
We took care of a sector of the population that had very limited access to dental services, many of whom had not been able to see a dentist in years.
Patients who received treatment were very happy and thankful.
They commented how impressed they were from having all the treatments they needed in one or two visits. It also called their attention how respectful and kind was everyone in the CDRI team.
MAE TAO, THAILAND (2015)
"Our little group arrived, hot and weary after a 20 hour flight to Thailand to load 16 suitcases of dental supplies onto a cargo truck that would take us to our final destination: Mae Tao clinic, in Mae Sot..."
Read more at cdri.ca
NUEVO HORIZONTES - GUATEMALA (2004)
"Nuevo Horizontes is a cooperative community of 125 families located in the El Peten region of Northern Guatemala... This community is a story about hope, humanity, and courage against the backdrop of civil war."
Restoring Smiles
Kreher Dental Clinic also volunteers with the Restoring Smiles program for the Dr. Borna Meisami Commemorative Foundation . "Restoring Smiles provides free dental and oro-facial reconstructive services to women who have survived domestic violence." The women we see are survivors of domestic abuse, living in shelters or supportive housing. They are in dental pain, or have a visible smile defects. The goal of the program is to eliminate pain, restore function and in this way also alleviate some of the emotional trauma that arises from domestic violence.
OTHER TRIPS
For more information and photos on our past trips, please visit cdri.ca