Two dental clinics set up in Turkey last month to help Syrian refugees are already delivering much needed care to hundreds of patients, according to Othman Shibly, DDS, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, who spearheaded the project.
One of the clinics, in Reyhanlı near the Syrian border, already has served 1,056 patients since it opened October 9, and more than 500 patients have been treated at the other clinic in Kilis, according to Dr. Shibly.
The clinics are staffed by six dentists and two dental assistants, all Syrian refugees. He traveled to Turkey on October 18-28, along with a Syrian-Canadian dentist, to check on the sites, provide dental care, and train the dentists in newer technologies. So far they are providing fillings, root canal treatment, and periodontal treatment. Crowns and bridgework were not yet available, according to Dr. Shibly.
The free clinics are also open to Syrians who live in apartments, outside camps, he said. Before the clinics were set up, dental care was limited to emergency tooth extractions paid for by the Turkish government.
Now Dr. Shibly is working on getting area dentists to travel overseas and assist at the clinics. "We have a plan to sustain it for one year," he stated in a university news article.
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