Academy of LDS Dentists

Smiles for Honduras

Smiles for Honduras is a group of 40-50 who have made humanitarian trips to Honduras the past several years. Recently trips to Nicaragua and Guatemala have been organized and completed. Not only has dentistry been the focus, but humanitarian efforts in orphanages, hospitals and other community needs have been done. David Sheets and Stan Miller of Provo are the heart and soul of this group. In Tegucigalpa, Honduras the group has placed tremendous amounts of equipment in the Dental School at the University of Honduras over the years making it one of the finest dental schools in Central America. Any and all are invited to participate and can make contact at dsheets@beprepared.com. The above was written by Dr. Greg Oman, Farmington, UT.

Contact/Coordinating persons (contact info.): David Sheets 801-371-8920 and Stan Miller 81-227-7898

Next trip: Guatemala instead of Honduras in April 2009. See section on Guatemala below. Check with David Sheets for details.

Duration: Usually 20 days with 2 days in Belize, Roatan, or another place for R&R.

Estimated cost for each participant: About $2000

More detailed report on each one available on request.

Various projects have been on-going with the dental school in Tegucigalpa.

Dr. Gary Crawford is a returned missionary from there and is a good resource for information.

There have been visits of Honduran dentists to Salt Lake City recently to observe clinical situations.

The Academy is helping with a February 2009 shipment of equipment and supplies.

Dr. Wayne Tomkinson is a full-time, LDS dentist missionary at the dental school in Tegucigalpa but is challenged with the lack of some equipment and supplies.

David Sheets and Stan Miller (non-dentists) have dental and other types of humanitarian projects going on in Central America, namely Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvadore.

David Sheets owns Emergency Essentials (www.beprepared.com).

His projects are usually “large scale” and often involve shipping “container-loads” of goods for the people.

1. Guatemala. From David Sheets:

It has been a wonderful year for the work in Central America with three humanitarian service trips undertaken and four within a ten month period. Many wonderful people have been served through your selfless sacrifices and we are extremely grateful for all of those who have participated in so many different ways.

Our trip to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala this past September was a tremendous success and marked our thirteenth expedition to Central America. Over 500 future and full time missionaries received treatment in Guatemala, bringing the total number of future missionaries treated in the previous 20 months to approximately 1160.

This upcoming trip to Guatemala (April 23-May 3, 2009) will be with our largest group yet. About 20 general dentists, 4-6 oral and maxillofacial surgeons, 2-3 physicians, and others. We still need volunteers.

The focus is on helping future missionaries from 20-25 stakes. We will screen about 800 potential missionaries in a stake center. We will set up 25 dental chairs and units and do complete dentistry: restorative, endo, surgery… We saw about 500 last September and many of them have already received their mission calls.

I will go earlier and meet with stake presidents. They will interview all young men age 18 and older. We will hold a fireside with about 1200 people attending including 700-800 prospective missionaries. There will be a general authority speaker.

Future missionaries generally have appalling dental conditions in their mouths. They may been treated by what they call an “empirical dentist.” In this culture, dental health is “free from pain”. Over the last five years we have spearheaded a dental equipment drive each year – shipping seven containers of equipment and supplies.