Ruddle On The Road: Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Welcome.  Cliff Ruddle here.  I’m really happy today to have the opportunity to report to you a little bit about what’s going on in the world of endodontics outside of the U.S.  Of course, we tend to see things where we live and whom we’re around and how we approach our work, which is oftentimes influenced by our teachers, the things we read, and our colleagues in our immediate area.  So, to share this with you brings me great pleasure.  It was quite a fascinating trip.  It was a long trip and it was a tiring trip, but it was all worth it.  Here we go.

In early March, Phyllis and I got on a plane in Los Angeles International Airport and flew about 16½ hours to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  When we arrived there, we had a little lay over and then flew on to Dammam, Saudi Arabia.  We were going to attend a collaborative meeting between the Eastern Providence International Dental Conference and the Second Conference of the Saudi Endodontic Society.  This was held in Le Meridien Hotel in Al Khobar.

I want to talk about three guys I met that really have added meaning to my life.  The guy that I want to talk about first was the President of the Saudi Endodontic Society and his name was Khalid Al-Fouzan.  Then, of course, his sidekick, was a really nice guy, Abdullah Al-Sharif.  These two guys were very kind to Phyllis and I.  Basically, while we were in Dammam, it was three days of very intense endodontics, combinations of lectures on Shape-Clean-Pack and Nonsurgical Retreatment, and then, of course, there were a lot of workshops.  The workshops were sold out.  There were many, many that didn’t get to come.  Each workshop would accommodate 30 doctors.  We were fascinated by the customs, the culture, the way they organized men and women in society, how they think about endodontics and approach it, and I can tell you, it’s all very interesting. 

Probably the guy that needs to get ultimate credit on the Eastern Providence is none other than Brig. General Othman Bakkar.  Othman was a really, really neat guy, and from what most of them told me, Al-Sharif or Al-Fouzan, he really started endodontics as we know it today, many, many years ago.  He’s in the military branch of the King Fahd Military Medical Complex and he runs that entire Eastern Province.  So, he had a lot of stories he told me about how they’re renovating clinics, how they’re teaching and disseminating endodontic ideas and concepts, the technologies they’re employing, and it was all interesting.  They have general dentists largely then, and specialists alike, that can serve the general public.  They have another whole group of specialists and general dentists that will serve, as an example, the military branches.  Then of course, there’s another whole group, a much more elite group, I guess, that’s chosen to serve just the Prince and the King and the Royal Family.  So, this is about 10,000 people in Saudi Arabia.

So, anyway, the conference was a large success.  We learned a lot…

(Continued in Part 2 of 3)