Dr. Kyle Blair has always had a passion for dentistry. When deciding he wanted to be a dentist, one of his thoughts was, how could his passion for dentistry help others?

Blair is a dentist at Covington Family Dental, and even though being a dentist helps people better their oral health, Blair wanted to do more. When he was set up with the When It Needs Doing (WIND) program, which helps children in Guatemala with much- needed oral care, he knew he had found the right program for him.

“Most children there have never had any sort of oral care in their lives,” Blair said.

His first trip with the WIND program was in 2014. Dentists travel to the Ixil region of Guatemala. The reason for choosing this region is because it is the poorest and most malnourished region in the Western hemisphere, even more so than Haiti.

Blair explained that Guatemala is split into two groups of people, the Latin Americans and the Native Mayans. Without the Latin Americans, all that would be left would be the natives which would make it the most malnourished and poorest region.

When Blair went two years ago with his team, they helped about 250 people, mostly children.

“The problem with the region is that it’s cheaper to get a liter of coke instead of water,” Blair said. “All of the added sugar and no dental care causes a lot of painful cavities.”

The WIND program not only focuses on repairing any oral issues but their other main focus is education. They want to educate children and their educators on the importance of good dental hygiene so that when the WIND team isn’t there, they can continue good dental habits and reduce the amount of cavities and pain.

“The last thing these children worry about is their dental hygiene, they have more important things to worry about, like where their next meal is coming from,” Blair said.

Their team tries to do work that won’t require follow ups for the patients, since they can’t be there year-round. They would rather extract a tooth than leave it in if it’s going to bother the patient in the future when they won’t be there to help. The best part about this being Blair’s second trip with WIND, is many of the children have already been looked at and helped. This time around they should be able to help more people since a lot of them have already been taken care of.

“We should be doing more fillings than extractions this time around,” he said.

After Blair takes a trip to help people, his perspective changes. According to Blair, we live in a sort of bubble living in the U.S. where everything is provided for us, unlike poor regions like Guatemala where they don’t have as many things and services available. Blair said he is very thankful for all of the opportunities he has here and wants to help others as much as possible.

Blair, his hygienist and patient care specialist will be in Guatemala from Jan. 27 to Feb. 5.