The volunteer dentists on the front line

Dental office “dental Dill” is no different from other similar institutions. Characteristic paintings on the walls, old magazines on the table, and everyone wanted to be somewhere else. But then you notice on the walls, bullet holes and pockmarked from shrapnel. “This is a really strange connection of conventional ideas about how the dentist office and military zone,” says Pete Kaart (Pete Kiehart).

Kaart visited the clinic in the Donbass — the region where government forces are fighting Russian-backed separatists. Many of the soldiers suffer from tooth decay and other diseases, and found that Igor Yashchenko two years ago, when he delivered food and other things to the front. The 52-year-old dentist turned an old truck into a mobile clinic and wanted to pass it on the Ukrainian army, but then realized that he and a group of volunteers can do better than that.

Yashchenko called his clinic “Dill” with pride using this word, which the separatists used to disparagingly refer loyal to the Ukrainian state. Then Yaschenko arranged a more permanent clinic in a damaged building in Karlovka, a village situated just 11 kilometers from the front line, and also sent two mobile Cabinet in other places. Last year he and his colleagues took 9781 patient.

Kaart learned about the existence of the clinic, “Dill dental” last year, when he was covering the war in the Donbass. He and journalist Jack Losh (Jack Losh) noticed the blue tooth in the truck, and later that day they saw a man in a makeshift hospital with the same logo on the shirt. They’re interested, and they asked to tell about the clinic. Their companion told them everything I knew, and in September they returned home. They spent five days in the hospital, where a small group of volunteers working in shifts for two weeks. Some days they take up to 15 patients.

Dentists volunteer to provide basic treatments — clean teeth, pull teeth, and the D. p. And it’s not just about pretty smiles. Tooth decay and painful dental problems have a negative impact on the morale of the soldiers and their ability to fight. All ready to assist them, and the soldiers appreciate such attention. “The spirit of patriotism, in fact, very high, says Kehart. — War parts, but a lot of people want to help”.

Kaart photographed coming and goings of soldiers, as well as several children and elderly people. Yashchenko was constantly busy with something- supervised volunteers engaged in the repair, and established the radio station in order to be able to listen to something other than broadcast Russian programs in the region. “It offers a completely different program, says Kehart. — A lot of Patriotic Ukrainian rock-n-roll”. This is another thing that distinguishes “Dill dental” from our traditional offices of dentists.

 

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