Encinitas Pediatric Dentist Leaves for Cambodia to Offer Free Dental Care

An Encinitas pediatric dentist is traveling to Cambodia Dec. 28 h to provide free dental care and oral hygiene education in rural villages. 

Dr. William Rawlings has been serving North County coastal communities for over 30 years (offices in Encinitas and Solana Beach), but seeing the dire oral health conditions of Cambodians during a trip to Southeast Asia earlier this year struck a chord. Seeing extremely poor dental health among the children and learning how limited availability to professional dental care was, Dr. Rawlings returned with a mission to help.

Looking for way to give back, Dr. Rawlings was referred to an organization called Project Angkor, whose mission is to “enhance the health of the under-served by providing free health care” to the people of the Kingdom of Cambodia. To deliver on his mission to help Cambodian villagers, Dr. Rawlings is heading to Cambodia on December 28th to provide free dental care and teach them about simple oral hygiene that will help improve the dental health of the region long after Dr. Rawlings returns to North County. In addition to volunteering his time, Dr. Rawlings is covering all his own travel expenses so that the funds raised by Project Angkor are directly used for providing healthcare to patients and medical/dental training to local doctors.

Just about two weeks ago, Dr. Rawlings spent his entire weekend volunteering his time and expertise for the CDA Cares event to provide free dental care- from cleanings and fillings to extractions and dentures- to anyone in need. Dr. Rawlings was part of a team of specialized dental volunteers that provided $1.62 million in care to 2,203 patients at the Del Mar Fairgrounds during the two day event. Here’s a picture of Dr. Rawlings at the event (focusing on pediatric patients, Dr. Rawlings donned an elf hat to bring some Christmas cheer).

–Dr. Rawlings press release