Belgian expert hails DMSF dentists, students
by Romy Sabaldan
Davao City (25 October) -- A DENTAL expert from Belgium has upheld the dental profession in Davao City as one of the best in the world.
Doctor Rick Claes, head of the dental mission from Belgium, made the commendation at the end of a successful 6-day healing and restoration mission of dental beneficiaries from the different parts of the Davao region.
Claes, an expert in implantology and orthodontia, has also expressed approval and satisfaction over the assistance of the frontliner dentists and senior students of the Davao Medical School Foundation (DMSF) School of Dentistry which comprised the big bulk of dental teams of the 1st International Comprehensive Free Dental Mission in Davao City recently.
Dentists from Davao and even Kidapawan including senior dentistry students of DMSF from all over Mindanao numbering more than a hundred were in the front line of the action which was also participated in by dentists and dental aides of the 10th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army in performing such important dental services as prophylaxis, cleaning, restoration and as a last recourse, extraction and the provisions of free dentures.
More than 3,000 dental patients have benefited from Davao City and the adjoining cities and municipalities in what could be the biggest, most comprehensive free dental clinic in the Philippines and anywhere in the world.Claes, owner of the renowned 12-dentist clinic Benedenti of Belgium, said dental graduates of DMSF can make good as clinical assistants in Belgium for a start.
The Belgian dentist brought to Davao City all his 12 dentists led by a dental specialist Doctor An Van Kerkhoven, who is reputed to be one of the finest in his country. The dental mission was conceptualized by a husband and wife tandem of Geert Verhaegen, a Belgian salesman of high-tech aerospace equipment married to Filipina dentist Faith Nuņez.
Doctor Erna Hilario-Dimaya, dean of the DMSF School of Dentistry which hosted the biggest number of beneficiaries at an aggregate 500 patients a day, has expressed deep gratitude of the members of the mission which also included American dentists who came all the way from Belgium spending their own money for airfares and hotel accommodations to get the job done.The DMSF, Dimaya said, is a consortium of Ateneo De Davao University and Brokenshire College and was created with the help of the Aboitiz foundation of DLPC, the medical and dental institution is very young compared to such big names in Philippine dentistry as the University of the Philippines and the University of the East, but is now acknowledged as one of the top five leading dental schools in the country. (PIA XI) [top]
