As I approached 40 years of age, I began to wonder what legacy I might leave. How might I in some small way make a difference in the world. I did not consider myself as having any particular talent for making such change, but it did strike me the simple act of relieving suffering, could in fact be a significant contribution. Although in the case practice of the orthodontist there, very few situations wherein emergencies or acute pain occurs since most of that is addressed by other dental specialties and oral surgeons who find people in acute discomfort from abscess or trauma. it did strike me, however, that prior to becoming an orthodontist I had done a considerable amount of oral surgery in the army in the mid 1960s while stationed in Nürnberg Germany under the tutelage, of the very patient, oral surgeon, colonel Hartsack and perhaps I can use that skill somewhere in the third world to relieve pain and suffering. But where, and how became the question the notion of doing something like that Might have floated around in my head with no action for years and what’s the same way as those who say they want to write a novel never move on the other end of that phrase, but one day, while having lunch with the colleague down by the shore, I let slip my private thoughts about someday working in a foreign mission. Now that I had let the words from my lips escape into the atmosphere I would’ve been no less a blowhard than all those people who claim to plan writing a novel. I began researching for missions, and most of them required too long of a commitment For someone with a young family and a private practice. I cannot afford to disappear for six months or a year so I kept looking for a package tailored to my life circumstances. I happen to come across the name of an organization called “American perforce service“ And thought I had finally found the golden ticket. Unfortunately, this organization shipped dental equipment to the third world and did not assign practitioners to provide treatment in distant places. The Director of that organization, however, was aware that in the island country of Antigua there was a need For volunteer dentistry and suggested I get in touch with the minister of health. I immediately wrote an introduced myself and received a welcome reply that I return to Antigua and engage in volunteer service. I advised the minister that I planned to take a cruise or the one day stop in Antigua at which time I would Research the facilities available and discuss a protocol. When I finally did arrive in Antigua, for the first interview, de chagrin, the health minister was off the island, the chief medical officer didn’t know who I was, there was no dental clinic in the hospital and anyone I spoke to Suggested that there was no way for me to provide volunteer care. Frustrated, I called a taxi and made my way back to the ship to leave the island, but as I complained to the cab driver above my disappointment over, not having established a treatment protocol, the cab driver asked me if I had planned to work with a pastor Mills up at the Baptist Church. I told him I had no knowledge of a Pastor Mills And had never spoken to him. The cab driver said, I think he has a Dental chair in the back of the church“. Either way, I dismissed the whole notion of contacting him as being a bit of the wall. When I got down to the pier where our cruise ship was preparing to leave within the hour, I kept repeating the name, “Pastor Mills, Pastor Mills, “and I said to myself why not? I ran down the gangplank of the cruise ship and started asking vendors down by the pier if any of them knew a pastor Mills. One fruit vendor said he knew a Pastor Mills , because that was his church and gave me his phone number . I ran into the nearby office and made a call and introduced myself to Pastor Mills, told him the story of my intention to come back and work on the island as a volunteer, but was met with considerable disappointment, since no one know who I was, and therefore determined, there was no reason for me to come back. Pastor Mills immediately said “we need you badly man“ please come back please come back. Will meet you at the airport when you return and take you to our clinic. Have never met the man I did not know what to expect have never seen the church or the desert chair I did not know , what it would be like working that facility. There’s a matter fact everything was unknown. Where did the patients come from, who registers them, who follows up on my treatment, where do I stay, how will I get to and from the church clinic each day. These were some of the things swimming around in my mind and the two weeks I had before I flew back to Antigua. Other things that concern me had to do with my ability to do oral surgery in primitive environments. Would there be water, would it be light, would there be electricity, what do I do if I and presented the case that is beyond my capabilities. The closer I got to the departure date the more anxious I became, especially realizing that I had not done any oral surgery and five years and even then I knew that a mouth filled with disease teeth could be a landmine, waiting to explode, especially if roots started stabbing off, and the surgical field was obscured by blood and saliva if there were no suction. There was also the question of taking medical histories possible engagement of patients with bleeding or cardiac disorders hepatitis period. HIV not yet weird it’s ugly head but 10 years to come that would be a major hurdle to manage. Since there would be no drill, either high speed or low speed, doing restorations are filling was out of the question but of vehicle importance, the absence of a drill it would be necessary to use a mallet and osteotome, chisel to remove bone that was obstructing an extraction. if incisions had to be made to get access to a route and preferably the bone would have to be removed with the chisel and mallet and a azure or bone clipping player before reap, approximating the tissue and closing the wound with sutures. Obviously resorbable sutures would have to be used since , I might not see that patient ever again. Chemicals would be necessary to sterilize instruments, medication for anesthesia and for post treatment pain control. I had anticipated, giving each patient, the same level of sophisticated care in this primitive environment as it would have in my own office. When I finally arrived in Antigua, Pastor Mills met me at the airport and loaded my equipment in the back of his car. It was humorous to note that there were carts being drawn by mules at the airport. As we drove through the countryside, I was exposed to whole New World. For the most part homes have been built out of corrugated tin for the roof makeshift wooden panels for the walls. The houses had one room with no running water, electricity, or sewage. Whole families lived in a single room, with a rope strung across the ceiling where they hung their clothes, charcoal grill positioned near doorway that acted as a kitchen and their bathroom for the backyard. Water came from a central dispensing area where people would also bath.
Once I got to the church, Pastor Mills introduced me to several of his parishioners all of whom were anxious to be assistance either reg patients assist her side, wiping the sweat off my brow, or making me lunch. There wasn’t fact a dental chair in the back of the church but no function drill or suction so I may do my bling up blood and saliva with caused 2 x 2 to maintain visibility in the surgical site. Once we got organized the line out. The door was endless. At first, I was handicapped by having too much training and that I saw Hawaii possibility of treatments that might’ve been applied for a variety of situations. There were cases that would’ve responded to root canal, periodontal treatment, crown and bridge, surgical orthodontics, restorative
dentistry, but I soon learned That none of those treatment modalities were realistic, and that my primary concern was to relieve people in acute pain. Therefore, extractions became the only service that made sense. Having gone through the first day of confusion trying to decide what I should treat or treat I realized I should just walk through the long line of people outside and ask who was in pain . Those were the people I ended up seeing and all of them received an extraction. I did reserve a couple of hours one morning to just do fluoride applications and cleaning on some children but pain relief and tooth removal was really the only service that made a difference. The kids were all fascinated by the strange “white guy” and I’m sure wondered, if I were some kind of an oddity, however, as they were all playing cricket outside the clinic, one day, went out to join them and asked if I could play with them. Knowing that I had never played cricket, they began to laugh and snicker at the thought of me playing , however with 30 years of baseball behind me, I know how to catch and I know how to hit. The first two balls they pitched to me. I had over the church which done the kids, whose eyes opened his wide the saucers and gathered around me to proclaim me to be one of them. I repeated the trip to Antigua for 10 years each year bringing back a little something more to upgrade their overall healthcare. I began introducing fluoride to the schools, and with the agreement of the minister of health and the bishop we began a weekly fluoride program that addressed the needs of 12,000 children . The project achieved notable success in that the research group from the Eastman clinic in Rochester, who have been doing long-term studies on oral health in the Caribbean had written that they were astounded at the decay rate in Antigua amongst children had dropped over 50%. Since I have been staying a little cabana several miles from the clinic, I would take my Meals each night at a little outdoor restaurant, which would host nightly crab races, where, in spectators could bet on one of several colored crabs Who were racing along the cross, a finish line that in circle them. A chance to meet a gentleman staying next to me as he joked about our selections. He picked the blue crab and I haven’t picked the red crab. he asked the reason for my visit to Nantucket assuming I was there as a tourist but I told him I was there as a volunteer dentist working out of the back of the church outside of town. Astounded, the gentleman said that he had hoped to develop a treatment facility in the center of town, not far from the Catholic Church. I asked him his name, and he introduced himself as the priest for the local parish who, incidentally, I recognized for mass the previous day. When I return to the states, I called my colleague at the AMERICAN dentist for foreign service Who has access to a warehouse of supplies and I ordered a chair, cabinetry, x-ray unit, high, low speed, drills, and a suction machine all shipped down to Antigua. In the name of this priest, father, George. Instructed him to have the name of father George put on The package but that he’d be instructed to call me when it was in Port in Antigua. 10 months later I receive a telephone call from Antigua and it was father George advising me that there was a package of him down at the pier but he was instructed to call me at this number, but no, nothing about the package or even who I was. I told him “I was the guy who bet on the red crab. Your dental clinic is down at the pier. I will fly down in a week or two with a dental technician and we will assemble it.”Being in the center of town gave us better access to more patients and it made it easier for patients to get to the clinic without spending a whole day of travel. I began to invite other colleagues to come both dentists and obstetrician who did cancer screening, and this we did for 10 years. Having made our way through all the schools with the fluoride treatment, established, a yearly extraction service, the idea then to build a new clinic and hire Hygienist to work full-time through the church to maintain oral hygiene until such time that Denis made their way to the clinic. One of the great fortunes I experienced was the introduction to Dr. James Carlisle, the most invested dentist on the island. He had also been very much involved in the transition of Antigua from Colony to an independent country in the British Commonwealth. He had told me my first arrival in 1981 that he would make himself available for any follow up treatment that was necessary. I had been anxious to meet him since I was ever mindful of intruding on his earth, well patient population, and saw his blessing on my work. He offered it with great enthusiasm. There was no way he could take care of all the people that required care, and that my help was very much appreciated. We became very close friends over the years, and in time my family came on these yearly missions and our children we’re in enriched by this mingling of cultures. In time talk to Carlisle would be appointed governor, general of Antigua, and become knighted by the Queen as the first dentist and the Commonwealth to receive that title. Since the clinic we established was near a convent. Our interaction with the nuns became a daily experience and one which had a profound impact on my life. Just at the point where I would think I was doing a pretty good outreach job for mankind one of the non-take me on their daily rounds which would include the prison, the home, for the abandoned, and household of the disabled. Seeing the range of their outreach and their ability to touch the forgotten members of society, humbled me, which would suggest that perhaps I could do more. And time , I would arrange for Hospital equipment that was being upgraded back in Connecticut be shipped down to Antigua by way of the US Air Force. The shipments included hospital beds, walkers, wheelchairs, commodes and crutches, etc. My obstetrician friend and his wife join me during my last five or six years and Antica , and he became a very familiar and comforting resource to the women in Antigua. In time, the nuns had arranged for Sunday mass that would be delivered in the middle of the island, so that it had access to parishioners for the fire corners of Antigua. This was to be a very Big occasion for the Islanders, who arrange for the choir to provide music for the service, but what was interesting was that the church in the middle of the island had fallen into disrepair and much of the ceiling was missing but being centrally located it was the church they chose. My Mel, colleague and I got the sense that this service was meant to be an opportunity to acknowledge our volunteer service in Antigua. But, we thought little of it given that it was in conjunction with a traditional Sunday mass. Interestingly, however, during the service several antigens rows to speak, and one woman in particular, while referencing my friend and myself explained her history by saying, “my father was well-known in this country, and worked for many years for its betterment. You all knew him and knew him well as a man who is willing to serve his people. as you know, I am blind, but even though I’m blind, I can see very clearly the goodness in the hearts of these men who came from the comfort of another country to provide their medical skills to reduce our pain and suffering“ congregation, Rose to applaud, well, ben and I Felt a rush of humility. We had felt no burden and providing the service we were trained to do, and actually found the whole experience exhilarating so much so we felt obliged to thank them for embracing us. When I mentioned to the nun sitting beside me that I felt we should be Thanking these parishioners the nun quietly said to me, sometimes receiving a gift is more important than giving a gift, so allow them to provide you with her thanks and they’re tokens of appreciation. With these words, I was even further humbled, which happened to be a constant and ongoing experience with nuns and women over the 30 years of foreign service.
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