LLU School of Dentistry - Dentalgram, August 2000

Nicaragua mission
by Brian Hanratty, SD'01

dental students

Shawn Rusk, Annie Ngo, Brian Hanratty, Erik Kim, and Shawn Pesh, all SD'01.

One of the main attractions for me coming to LLUSD is the opportunity to do dental mission work. I became interested in dentistry when I volunteered as a pilot for the Flying Samaritans in 1987. Once a month, I flew weekend trips deep into Baja, Sonora and Sinoloa, Mexico to help provide health care services to those without access to quality care. People sometimes traveled for days to attend our clinics, only to stand in long lines for services desperately needed. For me, the ability to help these people is what dentistry is all about. Thirteen years later, I am realizing the dream of being able to contribute to the healing art of dentistry as a practitioner.

Group photo

Back row from left: Dr. George Ortiz, Dr. Glen Rusk, Janet Villarete, Louise McGregor, Dr. David Carothers, and Brian Hanratty.
Front row from left: Erik Kim, Cathy Carothers, Shawn Rusk, Shawn Pesh, Annie Ngo, Dr. Mark Carpenter.

During the break between spring and summer terms, three dentists, David Carothers, SD'80, Mark Carpenter, SD'80, and Glenn Rusk, SD'67; five dental students, myself, Eric Kim, Annie Ngo, Shawn Pesh, Shawn Rusk (all SD'01); two nurse/translators, Janet Villarete, and Louise McGregor; one physician, George Ortiz, SM'73; and two support staff, Claude Scoubart and Cathy Carothers, journeyed to Nicaragua in the hope of supplying dental services where no dental group had gone before. I had been eagerly anticipating such a mission trip since I started dental school.

School finished Thursday, June 8. We started our journey at the First Baptist Church of Redlands at 3:30 a.m. on the 10th. We got home Sunday night of the 25th. My wedding anniversary was the 24th (oops), and I had patients on the 26th. A tight schedule, yes, but what happened in between will be forever part of me.

The journey to Managua went like clockwork. We got all our stuff through Nicaraguan customs without a hitch. At the terminal we were greeted by a representative from CEPAD, a Christian evangelical organization. After spending the night at the CEPAD dormitory, we traveled by truck and bus to our first destination, San Marcos, where we were to bed down. We dropped off our non-dental belongings at our rooms and headed for La Concepcion to begin our ministry.

Our group was divided at various times between obligations to CEPAD and ADRA, our Seventh-day Adventist mission connection in Nicaragua. The first week we rotated between Sinai Baptist Church and the Baptist school in La Concepcion. The school served pre-schoolers through twelfth grade. One month's tuition is $2.80 per student (I did not tell them what our tuition is), or about two weeks' salary for a typical Nicaraguan.

surfing pre-schoolers

Nicaraguan kids surfing on logs. Nicaraguan pre-schoolers pose at a barred window.

The kids. These kids were wonderful, beautiful, curious, smiling, and generally fearless while being treated. As our equipment worked well, we were able to provide hundreds of amalgam and composite restorations, thus saving the keys to occlusion for hundreds of kids. All this via a single electrical outlet! Scores of mostly adult patients were treated at the church.

ADRA arranged for us to visit an island SDA church in Lake Nicaragua for the Sabbath service. All transportation was provided via boat, the young and old paddling to the service. As we had no portable dental units with us, we were only able to provide dental care in the form of extractions to these gracious people. We ate lunch at another island before sightseeing the historic city of Granada.

Sunday, June 16, gave us the opportunity to explore the volcano at Masaya. The plumes ascend for hundred of feet before being picked up by the winds. Vegetation downwind is stunted for miles. As a curiosity, the volcanic plumes were background to numerous soaring green parrots that live within the crater walls. We dropped off Eric, Shawn and Glenn Rusk, George, and Janet to service the town of Masaya though ADRA's connections.

Volcano at Masaya, Nicaragua. School dental clinic at La Concepcion.

The next week, those not in Masaya returned to the school to continue the coolest dental work I have been party to in my long and distinguished dental career. Helping these kids continued to be an extremely gratifying privilege. Minus Eric, who had to head back a few days early, the Masaya group rejoined us. Friday, the school gave us a presentation with thanks, a traditional dance (Annie Ngo also learned and performed traditional dances even older than me), and gifts. Our dental mission had successfully, beyond all our expectations, concluded.

I cannot express with words the impact of this trip had upon me. Heartfelt thanks to Dr. Mark Carpenter, Ron Forde, SD '83, director of service learning, my travel mates, LLUSD, ADRA, the Dental Alumni Association, CEPAD, the First Baptist Church of Redlands, University Travel, and my understanding wife, Ellen (she let me go), for an experience I will treasure forever.

Nicaraguan dance Thank you dance

Annie Ngo, SD'01, learned and performed a Nicaraguan dance. Catholic school children performed a "Thank You" dance for the dental team.