Belize Dental Mission Trip

Benque Viejo del Carmen

In 2016, the VCU School of Dentistry partnered with Grace and Holy Trinity Church (GHTC), to support their dental mission trip to Benque Viejo, Belize. This international mission trip, conducted since 2008, serves local school children ages 8-15 years. Partnering with the church, students, residents and faculty from VCU School of Dentistry joined the mission trip in 2018. 

A portable dental clinic is set up in the town of Benque Viejo del Carmen which is very near the Guatemalan border. Volunteers, students and faculty stay at Clarissa Falls and travel daily to the nearby preschool where the clinic is set up. Over the course of four days, the group provides dental care to as many children as possible.

After a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students, faculty and residents traveled with GHTC and other community volunteers to Belize for a mission project in 2023. The team screened and applied fluoride treatments to 704 children at the clinic and area schools and they provided restorative treatment to 184 children.

“The faculty and students exceeded expectations on every level,” said Mary Cay with GHTC.