Alumni and BUIDRE Volunteers Promote Oral Health at Special Olympics MENA Games

Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine (BUGSDM) alum Steve Perlman PEDO 76 MSD 76; along with Associate Professor Paul Farsai DMD 94, AEGD 95, MPH 97; Boston University Institute of Dental Research and Education Dubai (BUIDRE) Associate Professor, Dental Director, and Program Director of Pediatric Dentistry Dr. Dina Debaybo, and Yasmine Al-Zoubaidy DMD 02, AEGD 03; traveled to Dubai recently for the Special Olympics Middle East/North Africa (MENA) Sixth Regional Games in Abu Dhabi. The group, along with volunteers including BUIDRE Dubai residents Rana Al Amoudi PEDO 11, Farhat Faisal Ahmad AbdulRahman Baalawi PEDO 11, Faraz Shahnaz PEDO 11, and Fatma Al Emadi PEDO 11 provided free dental screenings to the athletes as part of the Healthy Athletes® Special Smiles® initiative.

"I am delighted that just like their counterparts in Boston, the students at BUIDRE Dubai are committed to community service," said Dean Jeffrey Hutter.

Healthy Athletes® Special Smiles® is extremely important to the MENA region where lack of awareness and resources often hamper health care access for people with intellectual disabilities. Special Smiles® screened 598 of the 820 participating athletes.

Dr. Perlman is the Senior Global Clinical Advisor & Founder of Special Smiles®. He worked with BUGSDM and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver to start the program in 1993. Today Special Smiles® has 60,000 health volunteers and 500,000 athletes have been screened worldwide.

Also on this trip, Dr. Perlman visited the Abu Dhabi Autism Center, a branch of the US based New England Centre for Children, where he hopes to organize future BU oral health outreach efforts.