Honduras 2018

Hello friends! It has been a while since I’ve had the chance to write, things have been very busy over the past few weeks! On Tuesday I returned home from my yearly Medical Dental Mission Trip to Honduras. I began going on this trip with my father and sisters when I was 16 and have only missed two years since. I realized while down there that this was my 10th year being a part of the team! This trip means so much to me and I hope to be able to continue the tradition for years to come. Every June, our team of medical and dental professionals, as well as general helpers, travel down to a rural village in Honduras, typically a few hours drive from San Pedro Sula, one of the largest cities. We typically visit a village for two years in a row and then move on to a different location the next year, where we go depends on the need of the surrounding area and whether there are facilities that will accommodate our equipment. This year we went to the town of San Luis, which is in one of the poorest departments (kind of like states in the US) in Honduras. This was my fourth time in San Luis as we had come here in years past due to the great need. In this town and the surrounding mountain villages and settlements, there are approximately 40,000 people. While some towns do have medical and dental services, most Hondurans are unable to afford to have the work done or are unable to lose a day of work in order to go to the doctor or dentist. Major surgeries and procedures would have to be performed in the city, hours away, which is just not an option for most of the people where we were. To give some perspective, even those people who are considered “well-off” in Honduras would be well below the poverty line in the US. Once we arrived in San Luis, we began setup of our clinic for the week. We had a general dental clinic for restorations, an oral surgery clinic for extractions as well as other facial surgeries, a medical clinic, optical clinic, and a pharmacy. We worked Monday through Friday from about 8:30 am until 6:00 pm, sometimes even later, and then worked a half day on Saturday.

Patients would begin to line up hours before we were open. Many had come from far away, some on foot, and hoped to be among the first patients seen so that they wouldn’t be making their journey home in the dark. Upon entering the clinic, patients would choose to either receive medical or dental care, and were then triaged to determine which specific need could be met. Almost all of the Hondurans who came to our clinic needed multiple areas of care, but with our limited amount of time and caregivers, we had to decide which need was most critical.

Every year I work in the general dentistry clinic, assisting a dentist while they do fillings, and this year I was lucky enough to be able to assist my father. I love assisting in the dental clinic, but being able to work with my dad made it even more special. The most common teeth that we see needing to be filled are numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10, the upper front four teeth. These can be more challenging cases as they require additional time in order to successfully fill and shape, or sometimes almost completely rebuild, the front teeth, but they are also the most rewarding as you are transforming a persons smile. My father aims to give them a beautiful transformation that looks natural with their other teeth. Some patients are openly ecstatic with their results, but others are so used to hiding their front teeth and their smile out of embarrassment that they are still hesitant to open their mouths after. This young girl was very shy before and after her work, but she told us that she was happy with the results. (We made sure to get permission before taking pictures.)

Before

After

This year in the general dentistry clinic we had five dentists performing restorations, with my father being the only North American. We were blessed to have the largest number of Honduran dental and medical professionals join us to serve as we have ever had in previous years. At the end of the week, we had seen 192 patients in the general dental clinic and had filled 930 teeth. In the oral surgery clinic they extracted over 2,000 teeth and performed several cyst removals as well as other minor facial surgeries. I don’t have the full statistics yet for the other clinics but will update this once I do. This specific medical mission trip has been going to Honduras for over 20 years, and as some of the founding members of the team are now unable to make it we hope to find new members who feel called to serve the people of Honduras, whether it be as a doctor, dentist, pharmacist, or general helper. For the time that we are there, we seek to help as many people as possible, but we often leave feeling that we are the ones who have received a blessing. If anyone is interested in being part of this trip in the future or would just like some more information about what we do there please do not hesitate to contact me!