Global
Ostrow School Resident Provides Care in Thailand
- Sue Suh treats a patient in Southeast Asia.
By Beth Dunham on January 27, 2012 8:17 AM
Dozens of patients in Thailand received free dental care from first-year Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC advanced endodontics resident Sue Suh during her mid-December trip to the Southeast Asian nation.
Assisted by Daniel Lee and Jane Lee, her nephew and niece, Suh treated 137 people throughout the weeklong trip. It was the third time she has provided dental care in Thailand since 2009.
“During my first trip, it was very rudimentary,” Suh said, referring to the limited amount of basic dental equipment she was able to take on her initial journey. “This time, I was able to bring a portable dental unit and an X-ray machine. I was able to do most everything, including preventive care, extractions, root canals, restorations and more.”
During the latest trip, Suh mostly provided care in schools in the cities of Bangkok and Chumphon, treating students, their families and school personnel. She said that in Thailand, personal dental hygiene supplies and professional dental treatment often are prohibitively expensive, and many individuals go without care.
Suh, who said she is committed to providing humanitarian dental care, hopes to return to Thailand in April and eventually establish a permanent dental clinic.
“Here, we’re all really blessed to have access to opportunities, education, freedom of expression and faith,” she said. “We need to share that with people who don’t have the opportunities we do.”
One of the most gratifying moments of Suh’s trip came when she was treating a young patient, who asked how she could become a dentist or doctor.
“You’re helping people, and at the same time you are challenging them to help others,” she said.
Suh added that she was thankful for the support she received for the trip, including dental equipment and supplies, from colleagues Jan O’Dell and Carol Daderian and Ostrow School undergraduate endodontics director Thomas Levy.
“Dr. Levy is very encouraging and supportive,” she said. “I’m very grateful.”
Levy said he was proud of the endodontics students who serve those in need outside of the school, whether it’s elsewhere in Los Angeles or around the world.
“We are charged by Dean [Avishai] Sadan to give back to the community,” Levy said. “This is one way that the endodontics section gives back.”
Latest Global stories
- Pharmacy Students Travel to Central America February 16, 2012 8:07 AM
- Gerontology Experts Chart Global Aging February 15, 2012 2:37 PM
- USC Team Mends Discord in Mexico January 30, 2012 1:55 PM
-
For Journalists »
-
USC in the News
for 2/22/2012 »-
The New York Times highlighted the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, noting that “The Descendants” took the prize for the best adapted screenplay of the year. Screenwriters Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash accepted the award with novelists Kaui Hart Hemmings this past Saturday at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library. Variety reported that USC Libraries Dean Catherine Quinlan served as mistress of ceremonies, feigning dismay over the lack of library-centric films. “Where are all the library movies?” she said. The awards were also covered by United Press International, The Times-Picayune, two Deadline stories (second link here), The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, HitFix and World Entertainment News Network.
Los Angeles Business reported that the USC Rossier School’s Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis has been renamed the Earl and Pauline Pullias Center for Higher Education. The story stated that the re-naming comes after a generous undisclosed gift from the Pullias Family estate. “The Pullias Center can now expand its cutting edge research on postsecondary institutions, as well as its critical community outreach work helping underserved students get into college,” said Rossier Dean Karen Symms Gallagher. Earl Pullias was a founding faculty member of USC’s higher education department in 1957. William Tierney of the Rossier School directs the Pullias Center.
NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” interviewed David Treuer of the USC Dornsife College about his new book, “Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life.” The book centers around the reservation Treuer grew up on, and how the Native American experience is often depicted in ways that leave out the happy moments. “There’s this great disconnect between ... how we feel and how we seem,” Treuer said. Treuer’s book was also featured by Minnesota Public Radio, Star-Tribune, Appeal-Democrat, The Spectrum, Baltimore City Paper, The Bemidji Pioneer and Brainerd Dispatch.
KCET-TV featured “The Accidental Feminist” by M.G. Lord of the USC Dornsife College, a new book about the ways in which actress Elizabeth Taylor served as an early feminist icon. Lord said that she came to write the book after spending a weekend watching Taylor movies with friends; they found that in many of Taylor’s movies, she offered veiled feminist messages or embraced her own sexual desire while working within the constraints of the Motion Picture Production Code.
China Internet Information Center (China) featured a screening of the documentary “Assignment: China — The Week That Changed the World,” created by the USC U.S.-China Institute. The documentary follows the American journalists reporting on President Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972. The institute’s Mike Chinoy narrates the documentary.
-
-
Campus News
- Capital Connections
- USC faculty, staff and alumni in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento
- In Print
- New and recent books written or edited by USC faculty and staff
- Family Matters
- Achievements and awards
- Obituaries