Trips and Program

General Information
GMT welcomes groups ranging from 15 to 40 students for a period of one to two weeks. Day one is arrival and local tours as time permits. The next morning all participants will take part in a seminar where they will be given a general orientation and begin with the basics in preparation for the clinics.

On day three, we, as a team, will start our first patient clinic day. We provide free prescribed medications, as well as, dental equipment and supplies. We set up clinics in structures e.g. community buildings, schools, or local churches. In regards to the latter, GMT does not hold particular religious affiliations; we embrace all non-violent religions and philosophies. We work with any ethical group that is willing to help fellow needy humans.

After two or three clinic days, all participants will enjoy a recreation day. We will visit volcanoes, waterfalls, tropical forests & beaches, museums, markets, colonial cities, and other local attractions.

Our Medical Clinics
Our approach is student-centered learning by doing and involves direct patient contact and medical-dental assessments by the students in the medical-dental clinics. There is constant MD and DDS supervision and they are solely responsible for all final diagnoses and treatment plans for all patients. Only our dentists do dental procedures. This experience is 100% interactive, with students, patients, doctors all actively involved in the evaluation, assessment, and treatment of medical conditions.

You will not just sit and watch. You will work with doctors side by side. You will be encouraged to do medical-dental work according to your abilities/training, but always with medical-dental guidance, teaching, and supervision. The ratio of students per doctor is about 6 to 1. Interpreters are always present.

We start out with small sub-groups of 3 students assessing a patient. As you gain experience, this is broken down to two and even one student per patient. The more advanced you are, the more quickly you move into a one on one patient assessment mode. This is all with full doctor assistance, supervision, and ultimate responsibility, but letting you take the assessment and treatment process as far as you can with each patient. We can individualize for each student this way.

Our clinics are primarily medical / non-surgical (except for dental), as we go directly to the small village communities and set up in "non-medical" buildings. We care for all ages/genders.

We go to the people we serve. We move to different sites every 1-2 days.

We utilize multiple clinic sites in various geographic locations and travel considerably. These are moderately difficult trips. The students who participate in these trips are generally healthy, both emotionally and physically. In general, they possess a strong sense of personal spirituality and purpose, a confident awareness of their intellectual gifts, and a caring attitude. They seem particularly motivated to acquire special knowledge and skills, and a desire to apply themselves actively to the service of others.

GMT physicians-dentists supervise all the healthcare aspects, see patients along with the students, and teach them by very active engagement in the total healthcare process. Professionals provide topical lectures, end of the day group sessions and spontaneous discussions about specific cases and general problems e.g. lack of basic disease prevention and public health measures, tropical diseases, lack of education, cultural aspects, poverty, etc. We discuss this especially within the context of healthcare professionals living on a planet with millions of people having minimal or no access to healthcare, widespread poverty, inadequate diets, unhealthy living conditions, and often-lacking humane treatment.

Our Dental Clinics
GMT currently offers the Dental Program in Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
Our program provides students with a unique "hands-on" experience in Dentistry under the supervision of highly qualified Dental Professionals in the host country. Students perform no dental procedures, however, they will assist our dentists in doing their procedures.

We offer a general orientation/training to prepare students for the clinic experience which includes:

A brief overview of Common Oral diseases
Basic Dental exams and screenings
Overview of field extractions/techniques
Overview of field cavity filling process
Overview of manual cleanings in the field
Review of Dental instruments and equipment
Discussion of Dental Care Delivery System in the host country, and
Differences between the host country and U.S./Canada
Importance of Community Education/Public Health
Basic Dental Spanish (allows Dental students more independence)

Students will:

Perform dental exams/screenings for children and adults.
Teach oral hygiene including diet, brushing, and flossing.
Assist in manual cleanings and become independent with those procedures
Assist the dentists in extractions and pain management procedures
Assist the dentists in the cavity filling and pain management process
Conduct Public Health screenings/Community Education

For the currently scheduled trips, please visit the webpage Trip Registration .