The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) and the Henry Schein Cares Foundation are supporting the volunteer service of four oral and maxillofacial surgeons through the joint Global Outreach Program.
For the fifth consecutive year, AAOMS and the foundation are presenting $2,500 grants to four doctors to help fund their oral and maxillofacial surgery care in the United States or overseas. The program also offers each recipient $2,000 in healthcare products courtesy of Henry Schein Cares, which aims to increase the delivery of healthcare services and information to at-risk and underserved communities.
This year’s recipients include KyungHoon Chunh, DDS, MD, of Clearlake, California; Gary Parker, DDS, of Lindale, Texas; Steven M. Roser, DMD, MD, of Atlanta, Georgia; and Daniel Witcher, DDS, of Solana Beach, California.
“Since 2015, the Global Outreach Program has provided support to oral and maxillofacial surgeons in their efforts to deliver critical care around the world through such needed procedures as cleft lip and palate repair and tumor removal,” said AAOMS president Victor L. Nannini, DDS. “Oral and maxillofacial surgeons help change lives.”
Chung will serve on Mercy Ships in Dakar, Senegal. He plans to use the grant to cover a surgical set for cleft lip and palate repair as well as travel expenses. Other procedures he will conduct include bone grafting and surgery to remove tumors in patients from the age of 4 months to adulthood.
Parker has served as a full-time volunteer oral and maxillofacial surgeon with Mercy Ships for the past 32 years. During his seven-month service in Senegal, he and his team expect to treat 120 patients and perform 600 surgical procedures, including cleft lip and palate repair as well as reconstruction of lips, cheeks, and noses. He also will train Senegalese surgeons.
Roser is the team leader for a surgical mission to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, that will conduct surgery on approximately 60 children with cleft deformities. The mission also will help prepare local surgeons to sustain a surgical program at their hospitals. It will include oral and maxillofacial surgery residents from the United States and Bolivia.
Witcher expects to use the grant for the John Geis DDS Dental Clinic at Veterans Village of San Diego, which offers rehabilitation services to military veterans. Volunteer dentists provide free dental care, including full-mouth restorations, to the nearly 200 Village residents and other area veterans.
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