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Philippines, 20 Apr 2024 |
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Dr. Ed de la Vega, DDS.: The man with the golden heart is ready for the “New Norm” By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT PhilBoxing.com Thu, 29 Oct 2020  October 28, 2020, San Leandro, California. One day, God-willing, we will finally have a Philippine Boxing Hall of Fame. And when that time comes, Dr. Ed de la Vega, I am certain, will be one of the pillars of such an institution honoring past Pinoy Greats in fistiana. My fellow boxing fans would proudly campaign to name the Humanitarian Award after him. Once of the Philippines, then of Canada, and now of Canoga Park, California the past 40-something years, the humble dentist from the College(s) of Dentistry of the University of the Philippines, McGill University and University of Southern California is giving back to the communities that helped him achieve success in his chosen field in healthcare. It has been a century, give or take a few years, since Gaudencio Cabanela passed the torch to the convoy of greatest Filipino fighters not named Manny Pacquiao---Francisco Guilledo (Pancho Villa), Eleuterio Zapanta (Little Dado), Ceferino Garcia, Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, Ben Villaflor, Rolando Bohol, Rolando Navarrete, Luisito Espinosa, Morris East, Dodie Boy and Jerry Penalosa, just to name a few deserving honorees. Having someone like Doc Ed---man of science, cutman, proud Filipino-American---on our side improves our quest for a “Hall” we can call our own. “Gee, why me? I’m just a humble mouth guard maker. I’m nobody,” intoned Doc Ed when I called him from Lapu-Lapu City (Mactan, Cebu) back in mid-May. My feeble attempt for an interview backfired so I just asked to re-publish a testimonial from one of his patients; his friends in the dental field and the boxing world were also kindly solicited. Thanks to Doc Ed’s friends and colleagues for their thoughts and assistance. _______________________________________________ Going to the dentist under the ‘new normal’ is quite an experience. By Mrs. Lalie Serrano Ragas, Patient 
I am normally the kind of person that would only go to the dentist when I absolutely need to. The Covid-19 pandemic gave me a great reason to postpone my visits. Had I not experienced slight bleeding on my gums when I brush my teeth and received a very assuring letter from my dentist, Dr. Ed de la Vega of Canoga Park, California, I would not have mustered enough courage to call in for an appointment. Fortunately, my call was on time because my dentist just re-opened his practice that has been closed since the first week of March 2020. Upon receiving a two-page letter from my dentist I made my appointment. I had a feeling dentistry would never be the same again. 
Marisela, one of the staff at the office called me the day before my appointment and asked a series of questions. She also instructed me to park at the rear parking lot when I arrive for my appointment and call her from my car as soon as I get there. In addition, she also told me that if I have company, that person should stay in the car and will not be allowed to wait at the reception room unless that person is a care taker or a guardian of a minor patient. I did exactly what I was told and in response to my call she came out to the back and told me that she had to take my temperature using a touch less thermometer. This was done over a fenced-in property. “So, what happens if my temperature is not within what you accept as normal”, I asked. “You will be respectfully asked to leave and make another appointment after you get tested and found negative for the Covid-19 virus,” she replied. Assured that my forehead temperature was within normal, she opened the gate leading to the clinic entrance telling me that I should wear a mask. Before the clinic door was a portable sink. She asked me to wash my hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and then handed me a disposable towel to dry my hands. 
Thereafter, she pointed me to a container with disposable shoe covers and asked me to put them on. While I was doing that, she opens the door and held it open for me. “I can’t even touch the doorknob?”, I asked. She just smiled and said, “The less you touch, the better for you and everybody else.” Now, I am in front of the reception desk where I found the dental hygienist, Amanda separated from me by a plastic sneeze guard. She again asked me the same questions asked of me last night and gave me a pen to sign additional forms in addition to what Marisela sent me a week ago when I initially made my appointment. “You can have the pen,” she said, “One less item for us to clean”, she added. I can’t help but notice that the reception room was completely revamped. There were only four chairs and they were far apart and two have signs that say “Do Not Use”. Gone were all the reading materials too. 
Now, I was led to the operatory. But before that, I was asked to sanitize my hands on a touch less hand sanitizer unit that stood guard by the door and dispenses alcohol via a spray. The door was again held open for me. As I walked down the hallway in to the operatory I was asked to go, I immediately noticed several changes. The operatories were no longer wide open. They were remodeled to be single enclosed rooms with segregating doors. And, I was the only patient in the whole office. The operatory I was assigned to look totally different. I notice a black machine with blinking blue and orange lights. “Oh, that’s our air purifier,” Marisela explained to me when she walked in the operatory. I swear I could not recognize her. She had a hair cover, double masks (I later found out was an N-95 covered by a surgical mask) and she was covered in this long sleeve blue plastic suit from her neck down below her knees. She also was wearing a huge plastic facemask and blue hand gloves. Frankly, she scared me but as she told me that it is the standard personal protective equipment the staff now uses for every patient. It is all discarded after each patient. I also noticed a large exhaust vent on the wall. “Oh, that unit vents all the air out of this room to assure that the air is vented out after each patient” she said. “Air is then pumped into the room from our air conditioner that has HEPA 13 filters and UVC light”. Then Dr. de la Vega walked in. 
Man, the guy was also so covered up too. The only exception was he was wearing cloth head covers. “My wife Marcela made dozens of these for me, and they are laundered in our in-house laundry room,” he told me. He uses a different one for each patient. Marisela then positioned the chair using foot controls so Dr. de la Vega can initiate my examinations. She also positioned a giant suction machine they called “external aerosol vacuum unit” in front of my face. It made a loud hissing noise when turned on. The machine apparently reduces the aerosol that scatters around the room in many microscopic droplets. As soon as Dr. de la Vega completed the examinations, he stood up, unloaded his face mask then walked out of the room to proceed to a closet where he apparently removes all the protective covering he was wearing. Then, the dental hygienist, Amanda came in, fully covered as well. Before she started her work she explained to me all the new protocols in addition to what were already mentioned by Marisela and Dr. de la Vega. “You know, when you leave this operatory we turn off the air purifier and then vent the air for 30 minutes. That is done by the clock. We have a timer in each operatory to assure that we standardized the procedure. Then the whole room is fogged with a sanitizing solution and again left for 30 minutes. It is only after that that Marisela can come back here to wipe down all the surfaces in the operatory with a disinfectant solution and carry out all the used instruments. Then after that procedure, she turns off the vent and turns on the air purifier and leaves it on until the next patient assuring that the room is fully sanitized before the next patient comes in”. When Amanda started cleaning my teeth, I noticed she didn’t use that machine that throws a lot of water, the so-called ultrasonic prophylaxis machine. In the old days, she would use that first and then settle down using different hand instruments to clean my teeth. “The less aerosol we generate during treatment, the better”, she said. It took longer for her to do my cleaning but it also felt better and safer. 
The whole dental appointment was an experience. There was obviously a huge focused on enhanced infection control. But, I can totally understand it knowing that none of us including the licensed professionals and their staff can tell who is a carrier of the virus even if they are totally asymptomatic. I surely appreciate all the changes my dentist initiated in his office and all the new protocols exercised within the practice. I am aware that it’s for the protection of everyone that walks into his office as well as for the protection of the staff. I know that he put a lot of effort to affect all those changes and I am pretty sure it was not cheap to get them done. Therefore, I have no qualms paying a few extra dollars for what the staff calls “enhanced infection control procedures”. Before I walked out of the place, I was handed another note with instructions on what to do in case I develop Covid-19 symptoms during the next 21 days. “We will call you in two weeks to see how you are doing,” said Amanda and she waved good-bye to me as Marisela held the door open so I can exit. _______________________________________________ 
Back in October 18, 2016, the Academy of Dentistry International honored Dr. Ed de la Vega with an award to match his golden heart. The letter stated, “On behalf of President Ramon Baez and the Board of Regents of the Academy of Dentistry International, I have the distinct honor and privilege of informing you that you have been selected to receive the “Humanitarian Award” of the Academy. This Award is presented periodically in recognition of significant contribution to the enhancement of the quality of life and the human condition," this from ADI Executive Director, Dr. Robert Ramus. 
Dr. de la Vega’s award recognizes his work in the Philippines since 2013 sponsoring charitable dental missions through his foundation, the Dentistry For Every Village Foundation, an IRS-recognized non-profit corporation. The mission of the Foundation is “to improve access to dental care, one village at a time” in the Philippines. Aside from sponsoring quarterly dental missions, the foundations also build and endorse full-service dental clinics to responsible entities that can manage them and provide free dental services to the destitute villagers in the Philippines. The Foundation recently opened a dental clinic at the St. Scholastica’s Mission Hospital at Pambujan, Northern Samar. The clinic directly serves residents from multiples villages from several municipalities. The Foundation also slated to start building another free dental clinic in the outskirts of Roxas City, Capiz aimed for the indigenous Ati People from Panay Island. Another one on the drawing board will be build at the Rogationist Seminary Health Center, in Parañaque, Metro Manila to allow the facility to provide free dental services to the indigent people in their area of responsibility that consists of 900 families. “I am humbled in being selected to receive the award”, stated Dr. de la Vega. “But really and truly, it does not belong to me alone. It also belongs to the many volunteers and donors that believe in my cause and continuously give a helping hand allowing me to do my work… and two giant organizations that provide us with dental supplies, Henry Schein, UK and the ICD Global Visionary Funds,” he added. “My only wish is more people, particularly my Filipino dental colleagues, will join me in this endeavor so that we can help improve the quality of life of the people we left behind in the old country.” (Excerpted from the www.ADA.org and www.DentistryForEveryVillageFoundation.com) 
Back in May of 2015, Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao said this to PhilBoxing.com by way of Mr. Aquiles Zonio, “I’m doing my best in training (for Floyd Mayweather, Jr.). I have on my side Dr. Ed de la Vega whose competence and kindness is beyond question. Above all, God is with me. He will keep me away from harm. If God is with us, who can be against us.” 
With Edito “ALA” Villamor and Donnie “AHAS” Nietes (photo courtesy of ALA Boxing Team) 
With Jerwin Ancajas, IBF 115-pound champion. 
“It is an honor having Doc Ed as my mentor. He was my inspiration in going into sports photography, particularly boxing. I appreciate his passion for life and his admirable efforts in helping people in need here in the United States and back in the Philippines…Mabuhay kayo, Doc Ed!,” said Jhay Oh Otamias, photojournalist for PhilBoxing.com, atbp. 
This from Jun Aquino, “Every time we meet, all we talk about are plans for the humanitarian missions to the rural areas in the Philippines. We plan to do some fund-raising events with Senator Manny Pacquiao by creating cutting-edge designs for his mouthpieces which we can offer at future exhibits. I have Manny Pacquiao’s mouthguards and I’m planning to paint each fighter he has faced. We plan to have Manny and his opponent sign the individual pieces so as to make them collectors’ items---one of a kind. We plan to donate the proceeds to the Manny Pacquiao Foundation and Doc Ed’s ‘Dentistry For Every Village Foundation’—a truly worthwhile endeavor to help our countrymen in our own little way.” 
Photo courtesy of Boxing Team Balderas. “There are plenty other guys who do mouthpieces for this guy or that fighter, but when you’ve grown with somebody they learn to grow with you. We’ve had other cut men and they’re just not the same,” Karlos Balderas, US boxing team member for the 2016 Rio Olympics, told Ariella Plachta of the DailyNews.com (Los Angeles) in reference to keeping around people who stuck with their team from the beginning like “Dr. Ed”. 
(L-R) Mr. Carlos Costa, Dr. Ed de la Vega, Joaquin “The Dean” Henson, and PhilBoxing.com editor-in-chief Mr. Dong Secuya. Post Script: A Belated Happy 50th Golden Anniversary to Mr. and Mrs. Ed de la Vega! 
For the record, Dr. Ed de la Vega, DDS., received his degree at the University of the Philippines College of Dentistry, completed his post-graduate training at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists, Fellow of the International College of Dentists, Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry and Fellow of the Academy of Dentistry International. Dr. Ed de la Vega is a former Member of the State Board of Dental Examiners in California. He was a four-year member of the Examinations Committee before he was elevated to the position as Member of the Board. He served the Board with distinction for four years. He is a past President of the Los Angeles Dental Society and a member of the American Dental Association and the California Dental Association. He is married, has four children, a wonderful son-in-law and two awesome grandchildren. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Emmanuel Rivera, RRT.  |
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