A Note from Brent

Brent sent this note out to all of his "dental" friends, explaining what life is like for him in Afghanistan. I don't even know what most of the dental terminology means, but I do think that RCT means root canal treatment or something like that.


Hey everyone,

So here is the low down on Afghanistan from the dentist point of view. I am the only US dentist on the Kandahar Air Field which is a base to 42 different countries and about the size of SLC in population. There are a few dentists from Canada and Great Britian. Our clinic is not very busy though, at least yet because not too many are aware that I am here yet. Most of the work that I will be doing is RCT, ext, minimal restorative procedures and prophy's. I am training my assistant to do the prophy's though so that I dont have to. The set up is almost exactly like AYUDA. The only difference is that I actually finish the RCT and the dental unit is electric rather than air driven. We ordered a rotary hand piece for doing endo so we will see how long that takes to get here. I work out of a tent that is about 16 feet in diameter and it is connected to about 4 other tents that are about the same size. It is called the aid station because we are combined with a PA and about 7 medics who take care of other health issues (minor sick call for soldiers). Our work day starts at about 8 am and goes to about 5. The dentist that was here before had a 2 hr lunch break during that time to go work out. I am not sure if I am going to have that or not I am still deciding. We have digital xrays that are pretty good (DEXIS) system.

The food here is really good. You could get fat real easy here if you are not careful. They have meals 3 different times during the day and a midnite buffet for those who have night shifts. They have fresh fruit (melons, peaches, strawberries, grapes, apples, oranges) not all at the same time but with different meals. They also have burgers, fries and corn dogs for every meal if you want them. Then they have fresh made omletts or different types of eggs, sausage, pancakes, french toast. Basically anything you would want for breakfast. Lunch usually has the same kind of lunch meals that people would be use to with salads, and sandwiches. Dinner the same kind of thing they have mexican nights, chinese nights. They even have 6 different cafeteria like places (DFAC) that specialize in different styles of cooking.

The temp here is in the 90s right now but is starting to go down into the 80s. The mornings are in the 50s. There is dust everywhere. Nothing stays clean inside or out. My nose is constantly full of dirt. I dont know how a person could live here constantly. No wonder they are so mad all the time. They use our garbage to make bombs against us. They learn to make bombs when they are about 5 yrs old here so there are many children without limbs or other missing parts because of explosives they play with.

It is fairly safe on the base where I am at. The size of it prevents too much from happening around here because if anyone tried anything they would not live to long after.

They do have some extracurricular activities around such as basketball, volleyball, lots of xbox, football games that are mostly in the middle of the night because of the time difference. The internet here is extremely slow so I dont email or use the internet much. I can make phone calls every once in a while, but again the time difference and the access to the phone is limited.

So that is it in a nut shell

Brent