BY CRYSTAL HOBLIT
This spring, we hosted a dental team for a week. All but one in this team had worked together in the past doing many mission trips together. Having been all over the world, they knew what to expect, and they worked together flawlessly. I loved going to the clinic to watch them work together. Obviously a big part of our health outreach is caring for the souls of our patients as well.
One day when we had a lull in people waiting to be seen, we took a journey through the village going from house to house. We would take off our shoes, as is customary, at the bottom of the steps and walk up to their porch. Our goals: to teach proper dental hygiene and to make known the gospel. We spent some time praying, sharing scriptures, and hearing of their burdens.
One thing that the house visits did was to encourage the kids of the village who for days didn’t want their teeth cleaned, to have courage to sit in the chair. In Misquito dentist means tooth puller. Imagine growing up in that culture, it’s not a wonder people are hesitant to come unless it’s severe. We are slowly seeing a shift from only having time during a dental brigade to pull teeth because they are so bad, in exchange for people coming before its too late to save the tooth to have them filled. Better yet as dental hygiene is taught, more and more people are wanting cleanings.