Forsyth Faculty Aid Underserved Communities

A man and a woman sit with children on a service trip to Guatemala.

Faculty | 1/21/2025 By Emily Halnon

Associate Professor Jaymi-Lyn Adams (Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene) with patients on a service trip to Guatemala.

Jaymi-Lyn Adams and Susan Jenkins Lewando bring education and essential dental care to children and families in need.

When Jaymi-Lyn Adams travels to places like Kenya, Cambodia, and Guatemala to provide free dental care, she often meets children who have never held a toothbrush before. These are kids from communities that lack even the most basic oral health tools, a stark reminder of the global dental care gap.

Adams, DHSc, MS, is a dental hygienist and associate professor at the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene and has been volunteering for service trips since 2008, delivering essential care to underserved populations. Alongside her colleague Susan Jenkins Lewando, PhD, a professor of dental hygiene at Forsyth, they are working to address the disparity in access to dental services, both abroad and in rural areas of the United States.

A typical trip for Dr. Adams involves setting up temporary clinics where they provide exams, cleanings, fillings, extractions, and sealants. They also give toothbrushes to children and demonstrate proper brushing techniques using stuffed animals as teaching aids. This hands-on education helps children understand how to care for their teeth and prevents serious health issues down the road, Dr. Adams said. Tooth decay, for example, can lead to infections and other significant issues if it’s left untreated. And when kids experience a toothache or other oral pain, it can affect their sleep, diets, confidence, and ability to pay attention.

“Oral health is so important,” Dr. Adams said. “Our mouths are not separate from our bodies, so if we don’t get dental care, it can have huge ramifications for our overall health.”

The work isn’t without its challenges, Dr. Adams said. In some areas, like the remote communities she visits, basic necessities like running water or electricity can be scarce. Volunteers must get creative to maintain high standards of care. Dr. Adams has used hotpots to sanitize instruments and has even turned ironing boards into dental chairs. She has even slept on a porch outside the clinic and watched baby roosters run under her chair.

“You figure out how to be resilient and creative with setting up a functional and safe workspace,” she said.

Dr. Adams was drawn to Global Dental Relief, the organization she’s worked with since 2014, because they work with community liaisons before setting up a clinic and they aim to develop ongoing relationships with patients so they can see the same children on a regular basis. They keep records of their visits and assess whether they’re making a measurable difference over time.

Dr. Adams said she often spends time teaching parents and children about eating healthy and avoiding candy and soda. But she said the volunteers also have to be mindful about the limitations some communities face.

“You can’t tell a parent not to give their kid soda or juice when the water is not potable,” said Dr. Adams, adding that less healthy options are often cheaper and more in line with a family’s budget. “You have to meet people where they’re at.”

Associate Professor Jaymi-Lyn Adams stands next to a patient in Kenya. — Associate Professor Jaymi-Lyn Adams (Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene) with a patient on a service trip to Kenya.

Bringing Dental Care to South Dakota

Dr. Jenkins Lewando said she has been wanting to participate in her own service trip for years. This past summer, she finally got the chance. She and her husband, a periodontist, traveled to the Rosebud Reservation in Saint Francis, South Dakota to volunteer at a dental clinic that offered free care to Lakota adults and children.

She emphasized that oral care is just as needed in places like Saint Francis as it is other countries. The American Dental Association found that 90 percent of people on the Rosebud Reservation had tooth decay or gum disease. And the closest dentist to the reservation is in Rapid City, which is a three-hour drive away, where the Indian Health Services in Rapid City only has one dentist for every 10,000 people.

When Dr. Jenkins Lewando was in South Dakota, she saw people who hadn’t received dental care in over a decade and most patients who visited the clinic were already experiencing pain from untreated dental issues.

“There’s no easy access to care for Lakota adults and children,” she said. “Most people on the reservation aren’t getting the preventative dental care they need.”

Dr. Jenkins Lewando spent a week in South Dakota, performing cleanings and handing out toothbrushes and dental floss, along with home care instructions. Dr. Jenkins Lewando said the group of dental professionals she was with used the well-stocked dental clinic in the St. Francis Mission to do deep scaling, cleaning, X-rays, sealants, and fluoride applications.

As she worked on people who hadn’t received dental care in years, she talked through every step of the process and made sure they felt welcome in the clinic. She said she aimed to foster a relationship with patients that would encourage them to keep seeking dental care.

“Dental issues can escalate to other severe health issues and we wanted to reduce that risk for the people we treated at the clinic,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know just how connected the oral cavity is to the rest of the body, so it’s important to help educate people about that reality and help them understand what they need to do to take care of their oral health."

Due to a lack of funding, the clinic unfortunately shutdown after Dr. Jenkins Lewando was there, but she hopes it reopens and she gets another chance to bring dental care to South Dakota. In the meantime, she said she will stay engaged with MCPHS’s efforts to expand access to dental care, including giving vouchers to individuals experiencing homelessness and providing dental care to kids from families facing economic challenges.

“There are so many people who can’t afford dental care or access critical health services,” she said. “It’s so important to help people who live in underserved communities.”