Chula Vista dentist uses his skills to help Haiti

PV ["p. a_2"] = "Chula Vista dentist uses his skills to help Haiti"; by Lisa Deaderick pv ["p. a_3"] = ""; Thursday, December 9, 2010 at midnight

The first time that David Littlefield traveled to Haiti to dental care, he and his colleagues had to turn away from a few hundred people.

"We were overwhelmed. We had people who waited two days outside in the Sun to see us and it was way overcrowded, "he said. "We were well received, we just to see all the people couldn't get."

Littlefield, 53, is a licensed dentist for more than 20 years and has a practice in Chula Vista. He began volunteering at a cleft palate clinic in Mexico in 1996, and served there until other dentists started showing up and the clinic had not quite as much. When he started looking for a new place to volunteer, he learned about an organization called International Alliance for the promotion of the child. Eventually, he heard about the work being done in Les Cayes, a village approximately 120 miles southwest of the capital of Port-au-Prince. Littlefield and another dentist, who runs a foundation called Dental Care for children with clinics in Mexico, and Los Angeles, decided to get involved with the project in Haiti.

"Part of the discussion in the Group was that if you do it right, you have a kind of obligation to help your fellow man," he said.

That first visit was in 2006 and he and his group go back two to three times a year for about three days at a time, to perform fillings, extractions, cleanings, root canals and denture repairs.

"It gives you an incredible feeling ... the people are so great and so grateful that you're able to help," Littlefield said. "Although the reality is: we're going down there and it's actually just a drop in the bucket compared to the need, but if you walk you know you've worked hard and you feel that you've helped some people off."

Do you know of a volunteer who should be in the spotlight? Contact Lisa Deaderick (619) 293-2503, or lisa.deaderick@uniontrib.com.

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