Since graduating from the dentistry program at the University of Toronto in 1985, ICD inductee Laurie Houston has served the needs of communities both at home and around the world. After running a successful solo practice for 25 years, Dr. Houston found herself busier than ever. In addition to her part-time practice, she chose to follow a profound calling in public health. Locally, she organizes free dental care for women in shelters and provides care to Indigenous communities. Globally, she has participated in more than 20 international projects since 2012. To expand this vital work, Houston founded CanHelp Through HealthCare (CHTHC), a non-profit organization dedicated to delivering high-quality care to communities facing extreme barriers to basic dental services.
The organization focuses on going beyond providing short-term relief by establishing long-term, sustainable partnerships with communities through annual or semi-annual site visits. These assignments alleviate immediate oral infections, restore dentition in accordance with strict infection-control standards and leave a lasting ripple effect through dental health education.
Between October 2025 and January 2026, CHTHC successfully completed three humanitarian missions in the Dominican Republic and Mexico with grant support from the Global Visionary Fund. These projects provided 792 dental procedures and 180,364 Canadian dollars worth of essential dental care, systemic health education and sustainable infrastructure improvements to vulnerable populations.
Bridging the Gap in a Former Dental Desert
Pancho Mateo is a multi-generational Haitian refugee village located in the Dominican Republic. Most residents lack citizenship status, facing severe socio-economic hardships and a constant fear of deportation alongside systemic barriers to basic healthcare. Before regular site visits were established, the village functioned as a complete dental desert. Today, Houston’s organization ensures this community of approximately 1,800 residents receives comprehensive dental services on a regular, semi-annual basis.
The first phase of the deployment took place from Oct. 24 to 31, 2025, with a six-member volunteer team consisting of a general dentist, a dental hygienist, a dental technician, a trilingual student and two administrative assistants. The team treated 43 patients, performing multiple complex procedures on each patient. Volunteers completed 256 procedures, including examinations, dental scalings, restorations, endodontic treatments, extractions and the fabrication and placement of partial dentures to restore patient dignity and function. The student volunteer conducted oral hygiene demonstrations in classrooms at the local school operated by Amigitos, a sister charity, and helped distribute approximately 400 sustainable bamboo toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste to patients, students and families.
CHTHC returned to Pancho Mateo from Jan. 7 to 14, 2026, with a lean team of three: Houston, Lorchan O’Sullivan, a pre-med from Chicago who volunteered as a surgical technician, and Marcos, a local refugee assistant and aspiring dentist. This small but dedicated team treated 32 patients, placing 119 restorations and completing 30 extractions, 21 units of dental scaling and specialized endodontic therapy.
The experience inside the clinic was a testament to the volunteers’ grit, forcing the team to problem-solve amid equipment and electrical failures. During these clinical operations, the building’s primary built-in suction system failed completely, creating a serious clinical impediment and slowing down the treatment pipeline. The team operated under difficult conditions, relying temporarily on a portable medical phlegm suction unit to continue providing patient care.
As Lorchan later reflected, “Our clinical setting was no ivory tower, but it contained all we needed for proper and integral dental care.” Despite encountering serious infrastructure and machinery issues, he noted that “together, we were always able to problem-solve, finding solutions that allowed us to keep helping all those who required it.” Ultimately, navigating those challenges alongside Houston and Marcos left a lasting impression on the young volunteer, who concluded that “the work was a rare blend of fulfillment and fun.”
To solve this suction issue safely and permanently, a professional dental equipment technician from Calgary, Canada, has volunteered to travel to the site in November 2026 to install a completely new mechanical suction system. Dr. Houston is currently preparing a follow-up grant application to the College’s Global Visionary Fund to help cover the hardware and installation costs for this vital safety upgrade.
From the Dominican Republic to Mexico: Scaling the Model of Dignity
Backed by this enhanced supply chain and equipment support, CHTHC immediately launched its inaugural campaign in Huatulco, Mexico, from Jan. 17 to 24, 2026, replicating its sustainable framework in a brand-new region. Partnering with local and international Rotarians, the team established a temporary dental clinic in a regional library, working alongside a local Mexican dentist and assistant.
The volunteer group focused entirely on pediatric care and included Houston, her Canadian clinical assistant, a translator from Mexico City and Midori Yokoyama, an administrative volunteer from Chicago managing patient intake.
The team treated 38 children, many of whom were visiting a dentist for the first time in their lives. The clinical reality on the ground was stark. Dr. Yokoyama noted that “some children had severely decayed teeth—darkened to the point that their entire mouths appeared blackened by untreated cavities. The sight was heartbreaking.”
This profound level of disease underscored an immense and immediate need for humanitarian intervention, which the team met by completing 206 restorations and eight extractions, averaging five to six restorative procedures per child. The collective effort was accompanied by targeted oral hygiene and nutrition education for parents and children. To celebrate their bravery, children placed a star on a canvas tree visual after completing their treatment. Dr. Yokoyama was deeply moved by the families’ commitment, noting that “what struck me most was the commitment of the parents. Taking an entire day to travel and wait for dental care showed their dedication: they wanted better health and brighter futures for their children.”
Bridging Clinical Care and Long-Term Sustainability
The success of these three grant-supported missions relies entirely on combining immediate clinical relief with long-term preventative strategy. The organization believes that true humanitarianism requires a strict focus on environmental responsibility, ensuring that mobile health clinics do not leave behind ecological damage in host communities. To minimize the footprint shared by transient medical operations, the volunteers used reusable, infection-control-compliant materials across all locations. Reusable surgical masks, caps, wipeable patient bibs and sterilization pouches were used throughout the assignments, collected at each site and transported back to Canada for professional laundering in accordance with strict manufacturing guidelines.
Furthermore, clinical data collection remained integral to the volunteer teams’ daily operations. Rather than treating patients in a vacuum, the clinic systematically collected data on local nutrition and oral hygiene habits to evaluate correlations among high-carbohydrate diets, sugar-sweetened beverages and local caries indices. This research provided the empirical backbone for the stark clinical realities witnessed by the team, directly explaining why the children in Huatulco presented with such severe, rampant decay.
The collected data does not just sit in logs. It actively informs the culturally sensitive on-site nutritional counseling provided to local parents, aiming to mitigate long-term, systemic issues such as childhood obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular inflammation. Through this strategic approach, the organization demonstrates that true clinical prevention must begin with education.
An Invitation to Serve
The success of these missions proves that the Global Visionary Fund’s impact depends on our community’s action. Recognizing the urgent need for on-the-ground structural support, individual Fellows within the College have already stepped forward to expand CHTHC’s field capabilities. Section II Registrar Lisa Bentley and Fellow Deborah Lin contributed directly to these outcomes by donating critical clinical supplies and specialized small equipment to overcome on-site scarcity. Both Dr. Bentley and Dr. Lin have formalized plans to transition from equipment donors to field volunteers, joining Dr. Houston’s clinical teams on the ground during upcoming deployments scheduled for late 2026 and early 2027.
The College is immensely proud to support our Fellows who execute critical dental missions through the Global Visionary Fund. This is a direct call to our Fellows who seek a truly transformative professional experience. It is an invitation to step outside your comfort zone, to test your skills and to reconnect with the core of your calling.
If you are ready to embrace the challenge and experience the immense rewards of driving transformational work, the College wants to help you succeed. We invite you to apply for a Global Visionary Fund cash or product grant today. Together, we can bring essential care to the communities that need it most.
