The leaders exchanged ideas enthusiastically, referring often to Doctors Without Borders as a model they would like to emulate. They too want to reach out to places facing the most dire conditions.
"Anything to uplift the quality of human worth," said Lawrence Bud Krasne, who represented Nova Southeastern University's College of Dental Medicine in North Miami Beach, Fla., "by treating their teeth and their mouth . . . because if they can't chew, they can't eat, and they're going to get sick."
Dentists are used to being seen disparagingly, as practicing a less important aspect of medical expertise, and sometimes they struggle to be taken seriously. Unlike Doctors Without Borders, whose members are first responders to trauma, the alliance wants to establish itself primarily as a promoter of research, training, and peace.
For example, Somalia, with its long list of crises, has only 15 dentists to treat the entire population, according to data gathered by Malmo University in Sweden. More important, the country has no institution to educate dentists. Such schooling would be a prime focus for the alliance.
"Don't give them the fish. Teach them to fish," suggested David Mock, dean of the dental school at the University of Toronto. Toward that end, the alliance wants to set up educational exchanges between nations. And if an exchange can happen between two areas with a history of hostility, so much the better.
The idea for the alliance derives from the success of an unlikely duo in Jerusalem. Adam Stabholz is dean at Hebrew University Dental School. Musa Bajali is dean of Al-Quds University, the city's only Arabic university. Together, the men founded Bridges to Peace - a training program for Palestinian, Jordanian, and Egyptian dental students at Hebrew University.
