MANY of Modar Bilind Al-Roomi’s patients used to ask for a tooth extraction when all they needed was a dental filling.
That was in a refugee camp in Irbil, the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
At that time, in 2014, insurgents captured the Iraqi city of Mosul, about 80 kilometers from Irbil. Many of the patients couldn’t afford a dental filling.
Earlier, Al-Roomi and his colleagues cofounded the Kurdish Dental Health Organization. The organization provided affordable dental care in schools and public places.
When refugees fled Mosul and poured into Irbil, the Kurdish Dental Health Organization funded two mobile dental clinics for the refugee camps.
“As a dentist, that was the only way that I could help,” Al-Roomi remembers. “I did a lot of free care.”
Al-Roomi was born in Baghdad to an Arabic businessman father and a Kurdish doctor mother. He started dental training in the United Arab Emirates then transferred to Irbil’s Ishik University.
In 2017, the Al-Roomi family moved to the United States where he enrolled two years later at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine’s (TUSDM) International Student Program. The Boston school prepares foreign-trained dentists for accreditation in the United States.
Today, Al-Roomi is president of the dental class of 36 students. The learning mode has significantly changed to a COVID-safe form of teaching.
In a Boston under lockdown setting, it reminded Al-Roomy “of home during the war. It was the idea of not being able to predict what was going to happen—it was a different cause, different surroundings but the same exact scenario.”
“Regardless of whatever problems he may face, Modar is still able to reach out and help other people at the same time,” says Professor Ronald Perry, Director of the TUSDM international student program and Al-Roomi’s mentor at the dental school. “Difficulties have not tarnished his ability to think beyond himself, and that’s kind of refreshing.”
Whether aiding refugees or encouraging his classmates during the pandemic, Al-Roomi is quick to reach out, writes Helene Ragovin in a press statement for Tufts University, one of America’s leading academic institutions and based in Massachusetts.
“He grew up against the backdrop of regional and ethnic conflicts, and when he chose dentistry as his calling, he used his profession to care for civilians caught up in the chaos.
“Although he is now far away in Boston, earning a degree that will let him practice dentistry in the United States, his heart remains with his colleagues in Iraq, who have continued to help subsequent waves of displaced people,” Ms. Ragovin writes.
In 2019, the same refugee camps were faced with an influx of Syrian Kurdish refugees fleeing Turkish airstrikes. Al-Roomi’s colleagues still in Irbil were there to provide dental care and COVID prevention education.
Al-Roomi graduates in May and will work as an associate in a dental practice. He plans to practice in the United States and in Iraq, using the knowledge learned at Tufts to improve oral health care in Irbil. “I hope to serve my community with all of what I can, everywhere that I go.”
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim is the former Associate Dean of the UE College of Dentistry, former Dean of the College of Dentistry, National University, past president and honorary fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy, and honorary fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists. Honorary Life Member of Thai Association of Dental Implantology. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515./PN
