Humanitarian effort equals training for 911th Dentist-Mobile Dental Van adds to overall mission success

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Amy Adducchio
  • 178th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KONA, Hawaii --  "The humanitarian thing is something that I was wired to do," said Maj. (Dr.) Suzanne Maslo, the dental flight commander for the 911th Aeromedical Staging Squadron, Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. "You either like to do this, or you don't like to do this. I think it's something that you're either wired that way or not," she said.
Doctor Maslo is attached to the 178th Fighter Wing, Ohio Air National Guard, for a two-week training deployment in which the unit provides free medical services to communities June 7 - 17 in Kona, Hawaii. Equipped with two, fully-functional dental chairs, the 34-foot Mobile Dental Van allows her and other dental professionals to give mobile service to those who may not have access or the means to maintain good oral health.

Before moving to the 911 ASTS in October 2009, Doctor Maslo was with the 179th Airlift Wing, Ohio Air National Guard, for eight years.
Maj. (Dr.) Simon Nguyen, a dentist with the 178 MDG who attended officer training school with Doctor Maslo, contacted her in September 2009 and asked if she would go with the unit on its June 2010 deployment.

"I do a lot of this on the civilian side with my church. I've been to Africa, China, different places like that on my own," said Doctor Maslo. Pairing the humanitarian effort with the training deployment was a good fit, she said.
There are numerous training benefits that she has received from this deployment.
"None of us have ever worked on a mobile dental van before, but now we all know how to do it. We work as a team together to be able to set it up, break it down, and by the end of these two weeks we're going to be pros. It's too bad we don't do this at home, but next time, if we come back, we'll be able to walk right in here, be able to pick up and start it," said Doctor Maslo.
"The instruments, the materials they have here are not what I use at home so it's being able to broaden your horizons with that to be able to work with Doctor Nguyen. He and I knew each other, but we never worked together clinically," she said. "I like to do things differently than he does and were able to share that in an environment like this where we're able to help people and producing thousands of dollars of dentistry."
Petra Reinhardt, a worker from West Hawaii Community Health Center who has supported the dental van for the majority of the deployment, commented her effort.
"She does very good work. I'm amazed at her skills, and she works well with everyone. She's a very kind woman," said Ms. Reinhardt.
"There's always too much of a need for us to be able to [serve]. We have to massage the schedule a little bit, try to figure out what we're going to do..." she said. "There is no downtime. We have never just sat in the van and twiddled our thumbs," said Doctor Maslo.
"I think the whole program is an awesome thing, in life as well as in their career field. I wish there were more programs like this available."