Fifty-seven Sun Devils are preparing to travel to Panama in May for ASU's largest-ever dental brigade, providing oral health care to rural communities.
Smiles Abroad at ASU, a student-run organization partnered with Global Dental Brigades, will depart on the week-long trip to provide free dental care. Kevin Tobias, the club's president and a graduate student studying applied biological sciences, said the organization focuses on bridging the gaps that cost and geography can create in health care.
"We are laser-focused in trying to alleviate that inequitable access to health care," Tobias said. "It really just boils down to how expensive dentistry is, especially in Central and South America."
The clinics are set up in community spaces like schools and churches, where club members and volunteers help with patient intake, assist patients and shadow licensed professionals to serve the community while also providing education about basic oral health.
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Smiles Abroad was formerly known as Global Dental Brigades at ASU before rebranding in 2024 to work with a broader range of companies and organizations. The club increased from 27 to 57 active members, and Global Dental Brigades remains its primary partner.
The club hosted various past brigades, the most recent to Guatemala in 2025. While in the country, organizers gained a clear picture of the need and demand for dental care in the communities they served.
On the first day, 220 community members showed up for screenings. In a span of one week, the team finished 320 treatments, ranging from tooth extractions to fillings, across over 180 patients.
Tobias said he met a child on the trip who had never seen a dentist before. The patient arrived at the clinic in significant pain and frightened, needing a tooth extraction.
A few minutes after the procedure, the child was running around up and down a basketball court, Tobias said.
"We see the smiles that we're able to provide," he said. "That's why we rebranded as Smiles Abroad at ASU, because we saw those effects take place so (immediately)."
Long Liu, the club's vice president and a senior studying applied biological sciences, said the Guatemala brigade was a turning point in his understanding of dentistry.
Liu said seeing people travel long distances to the brigade in areas where dental care is unavailable and unaffordable shifted his thoughts about the profession.
"I want to become a dentist who's able to help others, not only for appearance-wise (but) rather on an oral health level," Liu said.
In addition to the procedures, every brigade also hosts a "charla," or chat, station, where volunteers help children and adults learn how to brush, floss and maintain oral health between visits. Vanessa Saucedo Pules, the club's director of marketing and communications and a senior studying biological sciences, helped lead the effort in Guatemala.
"The small things — teaching the kids how to brush, how to floss, the importance of it, connecting with them — has also been amazing," she said.
Patients were also left with "goodie bags" containing oral hygiene supplies. For Saucedo Pules, the gesture reflects a larger picture of what the brigades are really doing.
"Something that we've mentioned with the members before (is) how important our interactions are," she said. "Not even just the dental procedure side, but just us being there, giving them a smile, making them feel comfortable in experiences that can feel scary or intimidating."
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Most of the members and volunteers are pre-dental students, for whom this brigade serves as a place to get experience and volunteering hours, which are requirements needed to apply to dental school.
"In the States, we're not allowed to really do anything other than shadow," Liu said. "In Guatemala, we're actually able to help assist the dentist, and they're also able to teach us."
Now, the club is preparing for its trip to Panama and wrapping up the final training sessions. Looking ahead, Saucedo Pules hopes the club continues to grow and help other communities access treatments and resources.
"I just hope it's that something that keeps growing so that we keep making the impact, keep going to new places we haven't gone before, reaching communities that haven't had the chance to get that service to them," she said.
Edited by Kate Gore, Senna James, Emilio Alvarado and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at ngmohta@asu.edu.
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Nikhil Mohta is a sophomore studying B.S. in Finance and is currently a Business Community Leader for the W.P. Carey School of business. He is also an active member in various clubs on campus like PIERA.
