This country is a tragedy of human suffering and needs our help. Almost thirty years of war and political instability has decimated the population, and has been complicated by drought and famine. The infrastructure has been destroyed and no stable base for the economy has been developed. Human rights abuses are common, particularly with regard to views toward women. Many people are suffering health problems that no resources exist to treat. Our goal is to provide dental care for these people and eventually establish dental centers where these problems can receive attention.

     Dental Characteristics of Afghanistan residents are mostly affected by the almost complete lack of dental care during their entire lives. Men take precedence in this society, and women are in the background. As a result, It was much more difficult to access women for treatment than men because of this.

     The people are very stoical while being treated; so cooperative are they in general that they show eagerness to be treated and very little reluctance. They show a great spirit in that they are such hardened people, by surviving all the adversity that they have faced. There is so little available for them, and yet they keep enduring, carrying little bundles of things home every night on their bicycles, some little piece of wood to make their homes a little better.

     Although the clean-up of Kabul has advanced very rapidly since 2001, the city still has countless remnants of 30 years of war. The countryside is covered in munitions, land mines and old tanks. There are bullet ridden walls on every street and the remains of old warplanes are still visible from the airport runway.

     The people of Afghanistan have a great need to receive dental care; fortunately they may have the solution within their own numbers. Almost ten percent of the total population of Afghanistan are orphans. These intelligent young people have little opportunity and yet they represent the next generation of Afghanistan. There are few dentists or dental auxiliary people in the country. One of my efforts has been to establish a dental training facility approved by the Ministry of Health, using textbooks from Iran, and hosted by volunteer dentists from the USA, who through interpreters, can teach when available.

     I have gathered equipment such as pump chairs, non-electrical handpiece controls, small x-ray machines and automatic processors, lights, and the other essentials from other dentists who have donated them. We have set up a facility for poor people and developed it into a treatment clinic, training school and a hospitality center for volunteers.

     We have also collected shoes locally for the orphans and taken them on our trip to Kabul in May of '04 and again in '07. We had a benefit concert in April of '04 to raise awareness and funds as well. We recently had Ahmad Wali in concert (Nov. '07). Generally we are trying to raise the awareness of the American people about the plight of the Afghan people, who largely are in this predicament because the American government did not continue to help the Afghans after the Russians were defeated, and as a result civil war occurred , using the weapons left there by the USA and Russia. Today, much aid sent to Afghanistan generally does not reach the people themselves, either being used to support the military or eaten up by large bureaucracies.

     I am inspired to bring the treatment and supplies right to the people and avoid all the problems involved with bureaucracies. If you would like to help me, please feel free to contribute in any way that you are inspired to do so.  

                                                             James Rolfe DDS

Dental Characteristics

     Dental Characteristics of Afghanistan residents are mostly affected by the almost complete lack of dental care during their entire lives. While Afghans generally have more spacious mouths, their teeth generally are not crowded, and impacted third molars are less commonly seen. Teeth are generally well-aligned with some anterior spacing. The most commonly-seen problem was heavy calculus deposits which had hardened with age and could only be removed with an ultrasonic scaler. Frequently encountered are submerged roots, remnants of teeth destroyed by caries years ago. As age of the patient increases, so does the extent of pathologies, since it is cumulative without the benefit of care. The average life expectancy in Afghanistan is 42 years.