Since 1994, retired Wauwatosa dentist Dr. Ron Pruhs and his wife, Ronnie, take trips to the St. Damien orphanage in rural Haiti, where they provide free oral hygiene to children.
“Sometimes, we go to Haiti three times a year, more now since I retired in 2003,” said Ron Pruhs who worked for 30 years in pediatric dentistry at Marquette University and also held a part-time practice in Greenfield. Pruhs and his wife started volunteering when a team from Goodwill Industries was exploring the possibility of starting a school in Haiti to train dental assistants.
The school never came to fruition. However, a one-chair dental clinic soon developed into a hospital in an orphanage with about 500 children
in the mountains behind Port-au Prince. The Pruhs jumped at the opportunity to serve.
“An organization called Our Little Brothers and Sisters put together a three-chair dental clinic, and that’s been extremely efficient,” said Pruhs, who normally treats about 25 patients a day during an eight week mission.
Dental care is almost non-existent in Haiti, and according to the Pruhs, the Haitians have literally no recourse.
“They wait. It hurts and then it hurts some more. In some cases, if they have a little money they may be able to go to the dentist and have a problem tooth extracted,” Pruhs said.
It’s rare to see any teeth there that have been restored, he said. If there is a filling, he is the one who put it in.
The primary cause of a majority of dental problems in Haiti is malnutrition.
“In one of the areas we serve, a couple of Catholic nuns did a health survey and out of the 477 children, only 31 were normal for weight, length and circumference of their head,” Pruhs said. According to the survey, 142 of the children were at risk, 110 were seriously ill, 165 were gravely ill and 39 were in imminent danger of death.
The greatest needs with dental care in Haiti are straight-forward restorations, and the Pruhs complete a lot of amalgam and resin fillings.
“Even the smallest filling we do, there’s a very positive feeling about that because if we didn’t fill it, the tooth would go untreated and eventually have to be extracted,” Pruhs said. “Nobody else does the fillings. They just can’t afford them.”
The Pruhs donate all of their services.
“We don’t do any replacement of teeth, just basic dentistry, and of course we do a lot of extractions and a lot of surgery,” Pruhs said.
That aspect of surgery is where Ronnie is vital, bringing established nursing skills to the clinic and focusing on infection control.
Ronnie Pruhs also has been instrumental in establishing and expanding a twin parish arrangement between Gesu Congregation in downtown Milwaukee and St. Jude’s parish in Mount Opital, a mountainous region approximately one hour from Port au Prince.
Through the twin parish program, Gesu has provided food, clothing and financial support for the parish school, a daily meal program and renovations of the St. Jude community’s health facilities and convent.
The Pruhs also volunteer their time at the Social Development Commission Head Start site in West Allis site. For the past three years, the Pruhs have come to the preschool site, examined youngsters and talked to parents about the importance of early dental care for children.
The Pruhs believe they’ve been called by a higher power to volunteer their dental skills, and they admit the long days and extended travel can be wearisome.
“It’s not easy for us to do this. It’s quite difficult, but it’s also very rewarding,” Pruhs said.쇓
