ADA News
Dr. Usa Bunnag receives ADAF grant
Mentor, volunteer to help tsunami-affected villages in Thailand
Bethesda, Md.—An ADA Foundation grant recipient who will soon bring dental care and support to tsunami-stricken villages in Thailand is a living example of the foundation's vision—"Connecting People, Changing Lives."
Bethesda dentist Dr. Usa Bunnag, president and founder of Smiles On Wings Inc., a charitable organization that provides dental care and mentoring in Thailand, understands how connections change lives. She is thankful for the opportunities and encouragement she has received since emigrating to the U.S. from Thailand at the age of 14.
"If it were just me, I would not be able to do this," says Dr. Bunnag. "It's a team effort."
Dr. Bunnag credits her first boss, Dr. John Bigelow, a dentist in Potomac, Md., with helping her to change her life.
"I started working in his dental office when I was 19 and just going out on my own," she says. "Dr. Bigelow was so wonderful in helping me try to realize my dream to become a dentist. He guided me through the steps. He was flexible with my work schedule when I became a wife and mother. When I was ready to go to dental school, he was always ready with support and advice and he still worked me into his office schedule so I could have some money coming in. He gave me advice about establishing a practice and much more."
Dr. Bigelow died in November 2009, she says, "but his legacy will live on in me and in some of the children I have mentored. I'm passing on his legacy in mentoring others. It's all about mentoring. He was a wonderful role model for me. I wouldn't be here without him."
Dr. Bunnag's life-changing connections have led her to mentor students, team members and new dentists associated with her private dental practice. And, after establishing Smiles On Wings in 2003, she launched a dental program in a poor area of northern Thailand where her volunteer team not only offered periodic dental care but also established a community presence to promote leadership, development and education—especially for young women who were vulnerable targets for the sex trade industry.
"My vision in the beginning was not just for dentistry," says Dr. Bunnag. "It was the pivotal point to get to know the villagers and inspire the girls to come and help and learn to be self reliant—to dream and to know they could help their community."
When the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 hit on Dec. 26, she gathered a team of dentists, physicians and support staff to quickly respond to the disaster. The connections she'd already made with the Thai government and health ministry served her well, enabling her to provide emergency dental care to villages that had lost their infrastructure.
The mobile dental program she is now launching addresses villagers' ongoing oral health care needs: lack of infrastructure to provide dental care, reluctance to seek care because of psychological trauma from the tsunami, lack of access to care because of inability to travel long distances and lack of community outreach programs.
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| Care and mentoring: Dr. Bunnag provides dental treatment in Maelid in July 2008, assisted by two Karen Tribal girls she is mentoring. |
The Smiles On Wings Tsunami Dental Reconstruction project uses a mobile dental facility and a combination of U.S. and Thai volunteers in order to bring care, comfort and acceptance to citizens of the Phang Nga Province.
Dr. Bunnag's dedication to helping tsunami survivors, combined with the generosity of ADA Foundation, donors will create a sustainable oral health program serving the tsunami-ravaged area in southern Thailand.
In early 2005, the ADA Foundation and the ADA Committee on International Programs and Development created a Tsunami Dental Reconstruction Fund grant program to help address long-term oral health needs of the communities affected by the Indian Ocean. Donors and matching funds contributed more than $300,000 used to help tsunami-affected areas re-establish dental programs and clinics.
The grant from the Tsunami Dental Reconstruction Fund will enable the Smiles On Wings mobile dental clinic to serve nine tsunami-affected villages, several schools and an orphanage on a rotating basis. Villagers will receive regular treatment, preventive care and education about four times a year.
She says the grant from the ADA Foundation's Tsunami Dental Reconstruction Fund was the first one for which she ever applied and she is proud to have support for her charitable work.
"I have dreamed about this ever since I started Smiles On Wings," she says. "I am an ADA member, and the ADA is a respected organization. It means a lot to me to have this support. I want to be able to make the program a success and lay a foundation for future. I'm very excited and very proud that the ADA Foundation trusted me to carry out this project."
The most important aspect of the program, Dr. Bunnag adds, is that it becomes a community fixture, staying viable after its current volunteers have moved on.
"Programs like this need continuity and training so that when the initial leaders aren't there, someone else can carry on with the mission," she says. "Natural leaders will step in to carry it out as younger people grow into the program. And it helps train youngsters of today to be leaders tomorrow. It gives them direction, a chance to hope and dream."
Dr. Bunnag says the first mission trip is planned for March 2010 and will include volunteer dentists and team members from the U.S. working in concert with Thai dentists, dental students and dental nurses to help forge local support for the program.
"Our mobile dental unit will have three treatment chairs and a screening chair. We won't need a big team. Between four dentists, we can see hundreds of patients each day. By working with volunteer dental professionals from Thailand, we will be able to exchange information with our Thai colleagues. We in the U.S. have access to a vast array of continuing education courses because of CE licensing requirements. In Thailand, it's not like that. So working with local dentists gives us a nice way of exchanging information and knowledge and developing camaraderie."
After numerous mission trips to Thailand, Dr. Bunnag also opened Thai Crossing Inc., a fair trade gift shop in Bethesda. For three years, the store has showcased villagers' clothing, jewelry, home décor and gift items.
"They are proud of their work and I want to find a market for them, to create a long-term, sustainable way for them to earn money," says Dr. Bunnag. "Like me, the store is a mix of Thai and modern American culture."
In the near future, she adds, the physical store will close, but Thai Crossing will still sell Thai handicrafts through its Web site, www.thaicrossing.com.
The key to managing her busy life, she says, is having a great team.
"I have passion. It drives me every morning to get up and go. But leadership, kindness, love and meditation are important factors in gathering a team that you can trust to carry out the work. The dentists and team members in my practice, my foundation team, my husband, my sister and my children—all help make this work. It took a lot of work in the beginning, but when you invest, it pays off."
For more information about Smiles on Wings Inc., visit the Web site: www.smilesonwings.org.
For information about other international dental volunteer opportunities, visit http://internationalvolunteer.ada.org or contact the ADA Division of Global Affairs toll free, Ext. 2726, or international@ada.org.
To make a donation to the ADAF International Disaster Assistance Fund to bring relief to disaster victims outside the United States, visit www.adafoundation.org.
