Armed With Toothpaste, Junior Fills Socioeconomic Gaps in Egypt

Kristine Hassan, BC ’09, will use dentist’s tools—specifically, 8,000 toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, and a mobile clinic—to siphon off parts of Egypt’s larger disparities this summer.

Hassan, who says she sees Egypt’s socioeconomic inequalities reflected in Egyptians’ smiles, won a $10,000 grant from Davis Projects for Peace to promote dental hygiene in rural areas outside the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Kathryn Wasserman Davis—who is over 100 years old—is funding a broad project, titled “100 Projects for Peace,” by donating $1 million annually to 100 students who will initiate grassroots projects for peace.

Hassan didn’t know she was interested in dentistry until summer 2007, when her work plans in Egypt fell through. A biology major, Hassan entered Barnard knowing she wanted to pursue healthcare, but unsure of her specific aspirations. Last summer, Hassan shadowed a family friend in Umm Al-Masryeen hospital’s
government-subsidized dental clinic—a pivotal moment in her career pursuits.
“None of it grossed me out like I expected to, and I had never seen a career before then that I could see myself doing comfortably,” she said.

While Hassan’s parents are Egyptian and Greek-Irish, she said no culture dominated her childhood and that she grew up as “simply American.” But since age 14, Hassan’s annual visits to Egypt fostered a love of the country’s culture—language, music, people, and dance. Hassan currently dances in Columbia’s bellydancing troupe, expressing her love for Egypt.

“The more and more my love grew for the country, the more I saw the problems of its people,” Hassan said, adding that her desire to help Egyptians strengthened with each trip. She thought of her project when she noticed that socioeconomic disparities corresponded with dental hygiene.

While Hassan noticed broader problems in Egypt, such as governmental corruption, poverty, malnutrition, and homelessness, she thought grassroots programs could serve as concrete steps toward healing wounds.

“There are so many things that I think are bigger disparities than dental care,” Hassan said. “But in a way, that makes this project more effective, because the government can’t pay a lot of attention to something as small as dental care.”

By winter break, Hassan had already worked out some logistics to coordinate her project with the Egyptian Dental Union. But over break, Barnard Dean James Runsdorf notified her class of the grant, and worked with Hassan to complete her application at the last second.

The proposal outlined funding for the promotion of dental hygiene in Egypt’s rural areas. Specifically, ten dentists will rent a mobile clinic and give out 8,000 toothbrushes—a commodity many Egyptians do not own. Citizens will form relationships with dentists and learn about the importance of dental care, as untreated dental issues can grow into infections that, in extreme cases, could lead to death.

Hassan said she saw some of the world’s worst teeth in rural Egypt. Civilians there not only have less access to dental care than urban citizens, but are apprehensive about dental procedures even in governmentally subsidized clinics.

“They were so scared of root canals, they just resorted to extraction, and there was nothing restorative,” Hassan said. “The whole point of dental care is to restore and not to just pull out your teeth until you have none left in your head.”

As such, Hassan sees her work as a symbolic restoration of the erosion of accessibility that exists outside of people’s mouths.

Hassan said she hopes the program will continue when the grant money runs thin, depending on donations from pharmaceutical companies.

The work is worth it, she said, because “in Egypt, the people who have the least to smile about have the biggest smiles.”

joy.resmovits@columbiaspectator.com