A team of 110 people, made up of dentists, teachers, and students of the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth years of dentistry at the Universidad Adventista del Plata (UAP), as well as those who are doing their final professional practices at the San Blas Hospital in Nogoyá, Argentina, provided a dental service to residents of Victoria, Entre Ríos, who do not have access to this type of care (economically and geographically).

This academic service and assistance activity took place on May 29–30, 2023, at the Fermín Salaberry Hospital, offering dental fluoridation, caries treatment, dental cleaning, periodontal treatments, extractions, removable partial dentures, and fixed prostheses. In addition, more than 50 second-year students of the UAP Dentistry course visited different educational establishments in the area, carrying out a promotion campaign and deepening hygiene techniques to take care of oral health.

During these two days of oral health care and promotion, more than 900 people were scheduled. However, due to time, space, and human resources issues, it was not possible to provide service to all those patients, reaching a number close to 500, which were distributed among sixteen intervention places.

The program was attended by Guillermo Brugo, DDS, director of Dentistry for Entre Ríos; Dr. Daniel Heissenberg, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences; Dr. Jorge Escandriolo Nackauci and Dr. Verena Echezarraga, director and vice-director, respectively, of the Faculty of Dentistry and teachers of the clinical subjects of the course, who evaluated and advised the students. Domingo Maiocco, mayor of Victoria, Dr. Federico Picchi, municipal director of Health, and Dr. Nelly Amilibia, director of the Fermín Salaberry Hospital of Victoria, were all present on behalf of the town.

Dr. Nackauci said, "The experience was very gratifying. The intention of this activity is to sow in the hearts of our students the vocation for service. That the competencies that they can naturalize in their training be directed towards satisfying the needs of people, of their fellow men. This is an unforgettable experience for students, teachers, and patients alike."

These actions are part of the Mission Possible program, which also made it possible to carry out an epidemiological survey; the data will be evaluated in the next few days and yield useful results for future strategies and interventions.

"The different places where the mission can operate are defined on the basis of suggestions offered to us by the Dentistry Department of Entre Ríos. They have the information and studies of needs, fundamental criteria that guide us to choose, twice a year, where to develop this project," explained Dr. Nackauci.

This intervention of the UAP contingent was extended to the other localities in the area of influence of Entre Ríos, which include the Community Integration Center of Rincón de Nogoyá, as well as primary healthcare centers such as Juan C. Manassero, of Rincón del Doll, and Helena de Zabisky, of Antelo—places where people from Laguna del Pescado, Victoria, including Alejandro Fleming, of Rincón Nogoyá, and Sidney Rees, of Paraje Los Cerros, all converged.

The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Spanish-language news site.