The Montero Medical Mission arrived on the island on Saturday, September 16th.  The US mission is headed by its founding member and President Dr. Juan Montero, and supported by his executive team from Virginia. The mission will be providing dental care to patients who have been assessed and registered at the dental clinics around the island, by appointment. This team will be providing services such as: cleanings, fillings and extractions at each of the dental clinics from September 18th to 20th.

During a brief ceremony and training sessions on Sunday, September 17th Dr.  Juan Montero described his experience on the island so far as a “tremendous blessing for the 12- year old medical mission.”

“This is such a unique ultimate situation in our mission work of all the things we have received so far starting from our arrival and I look forward to the following days as we are here for a week helping our beloved people here in St Lucia,” Dr. Juan Montero founder and President, said. “I am now a friend and also hoping to be a friend forever from here on, and we would like one of our flagship projects to be the dental care among the nine services that we offer”.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, Ms. Jenny Daniel said oral health is one of the key pillars of health and wellness and attention needed to be given in order to reach the ultimate goal of a healthy population. The Ministry of Health recognizes that such a goal can only be fully recognized through the building of strategic partnerships.

“Missions like this which reach out to every single corner of the country, helps us to foster that partnership which helps us to reach that ultimate goal.  Dental care is very often overlooked as a pillar of health care in St. Lucia and in other parts of the world as well. In the past however, oral health was often used as a measure of good health or poor health in an individual; if we use this same measure, then addressing oral health care is actually a pathway through which we can channel an improvement in a person’s state of health, and so we look towards oral health as a means of achieving optimum health and wellness within the of the population”.

She added that in St. Lucia as with several other countries, access to oral health care is prohibited by the exorbitant cost of treatment. However, early initiation into proper oral hygiene, she added, could reduce on the need for costly treatment.  Miss Daniel says the services being provided by the visiting delegation compliments ongoing efforts by the ministry in health reform and universal health care- that of giving greater access to basic health services.  

While in Saint Lucia, the medical mission will also be engaging all 77 primary schools on the island on a Colgate Virtual Van Tour. Valarie Fletcher, Curriculum Officer for Health and Family Life Education at CAMDU explains that the virtual van tour is being executed via the zoom platform from Monday September 18th to Wednesday September 20th.

“It is being organized in such as way that all 77 primary schools can be a part of it. Every school is grouped, hence the reason for the three days; and also to accommodate the students, we also have more than one session on the day.  We begin from 10:00 am and it is a half an hour lesson so all the children can be part of the session.”

On Sunday the Mission also awarded certificates to dental assistants who participated in a four –month online program which focused on radiology, radiation health safety, infection control and oral anatomy, among other topics.

The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, supports the collaborative efforts of Rotary Saint Lucia, Rotary Gros-Islet, Lions Club, the Tourism sector, and the Mayor of Castries, in welcoming the Montero Medical Mission as they provide well needed dental care to the public.