THE BEST SMILE IN THE WORLD

Giving instructions after treatment

We are enjoying working on all of the children from the orphanage. We have enough work lined up to keep us busy for many many months to come. At least until we are ready to go home....

This last week we had several of the boys that we did exams for come to the clinic for their "emergency treatment". We are trying to take care of those things that are causing pain or could cause pain very soon. We have been doing LOTS of endo (root canals) and extractions. Almost every patient that comes to the clinic has at least one tooth that is decayed off to the gums. Sometimes Wayne just has to dig around to find the root tips that are left to get the remaining part of the tooth. (You can tell that I am using layman's terms for all of this dental stuff still!!)

The other day we had a little boy about 13 years old. His name is Adan. He came to the clinic with one of his laterals decayed off to the gum. The first thing that they always ask is "Are you going to take out my tooth?" Wayne explained to him that we were going to do a treatment that would help him keep his tooth. We wanted to try that first.

We did a root canal, post build-up and then did a restoration on the post to give Adan a new tooth. He had no idea that is what we were going to try and do. After the treatment I gave him a mirror so that he could see his new tooth. As he looked in the mirror you could just see the smile come across his face. HE HAD A NEW TOOTH.....where before he had a decayed stub. I will never forget that smile and how it spread across his face. It was one of the miracles I have seen here. We had been so busy that I hadn't thought to take a before picture of him.

Adan and his new tooth...this smile doesn't show how he reacted
when he first saw it...

It doesn't get much better than that!!!

Another satisfied participant.....I think he is the cutest!!