Academy of LDS Dentists

Greetings, Friends of Smiles for Central America!We are pleased to announce our next dental and medical expedition to Central America!

 “SMILES FOR HONDURAS 2010″
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS
NOVEMBER 19 THROUGH 28, 2010

We anticipate helping 500 young men and women prepare to serve LDS missions by providing assistance in filling out missionary papers, haircuts, missionary photos, blood and urine tests, missionary medical exams, hygiene training, dental cleaning, comprehensive restorative dentistry, endodontics, and oral surgery. We will also be participating in various community service projects while we are in San Pedro Sula, including projects for orphanages, a children’s cancer hospital, a maternity hospital, a Sub-for-Santa project for the families in a local LDS ward, and several visits to families in need.

Our Volunteer Team

Our team will consist of approximately 80 to 100 volunteers. The estimated numbers of medical and dental professionals and volunteers needed are:

• 20 general dentists
• 4 endodontists
• 4 oral surgeons 
• 1 prosthodontist or dental lab technician (to make replacement teeth)
• 5 dental hygienists
• 15+ pre-dental students
• 3 physicians
• 1-2 nurses
• 2 volunteers to give haircuts
• Other volunteers to staff the dental and medical clinic areas, as well as humanitarian services

Dental and medical professionals are encouraged (but not required) to bring a trained assistant and/or family members to assist in the clinic. This will enable us to be as efficient as possible in this large endeavor. We have a huge job to do, but with everyone’s cooperation, love, charity, smiles, and energy, it will be a pleasure to serve our brothers and sisters in this beautiful Central American country.

Costs for the Expedition

At this time, the anticipated cost of this trip is $2,300 per person. This includes airfare from and returning to Salt Lake City (may be different for those departing from and returning to other airports), hotels, meals, ground transportation, and a two-day excursion / humanitarian project — tentively planned for Rio Dulce, Guatemala.

Everyone, including tour leaders, pays his/her own way. All payments for this trip will be processed through the Provo Rotary Charitable Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. We are grateful to the Provo Rotary Club, Inc. for providing use of this foundation.

Passport

Participants must have a current passport that does not expire before May 30, 2011. Passport numbers for travelers with our group must be turned in to the Honduran government at least a month before our arrival to ensure our humanitarian status. You will not need to obtain a visa for this trip.

Special Licenses to Practice in Honduras

We will help you apply for a temporary license to practice in Honduras. All medical and dental professionals will need to obtain this license, as you cannot practice without it. This will be done as a group.

Therefore, if you are planning to travel with us, you must send ASAP via email, digital copies of your diploma, current dental license, curriculum vitae (a brief resume), and passport to smilesforcentralamerica@gmail.com so we can do this for you. All dental and medical professionals should also have photocopies of these documents with them on the trip. If you submitted these forms for our trip to Nicaragua in April, we still have your documents and you do not need to resubmit them. However, if your dental license expired since then, please send us an updated digital copy.

Click here for more information about what you need to bring, what we provide for you, and information you need to provide to be able to practice in Honduras.

Immunizations

We recommend that you contact your physician or local county health department, tell them where you’re going, and obtain their recommendations about immunizations.

Application and Registration

If you are interested in joining us for Smiles for Honduras 2010 in November, please submit an application as soon as possible. After you have filled out your application and have been selected to participate, you will be given a password to access the online Registration form. The completed Registration form and a deposit of $200 are required to reserve your position on the team. Team positions fill up quickly–we encourage you to register early!

Registration forms and payment in full are due no later than September 30, 2010.  If we have not received your registration and payment by September 30, we’ll assume you do not plan to join us this time.

If you have traveled with us before, you will notice that our registration and payment methods have changed. We will now be submitting and processing all of our application and registration forms online at:

www.smilesforcentralamerica.com.

David Sheets
801-836-0971
dsheets@beprepared.com 

Stan Miller
(801) 371-0400
StanMiller@BYU.net

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Please Note: The following material is a report on the most recent project.

Dear Friends of Central America,

As many of you are aware, we just completed our 16th brigada in central America, which we have dubbed our “Dalmatian Brigada” — with 101 volunteers. We had a wonderful and cohesive team, and some 540 patients were treated, 425 being future missionaries.

The most recent seven brigadas have focused on helping prepare young men and women for their missions. Our scope of service has expanded to now include assistance in filling out missionary papers, haircuts, missionary photos, blood and urine tests with immediate on-site processing, missionary medical exams, hygiene training, comprehensive restorative dentistry, endodontics, and oral surgery.

Also, many community service projects are carried out. In less than 2 ½ years, some 3,200 future missionaries have been served. Please accept my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have given so much of your time and resources to bring this miracle about.

Please permit me to share with you just one of the many miracles that occurred during this brigada in Nicaragua. On one of the days at the clinic in Managua, when the number of future missionaries was slightly fewer than expected, we called Mission President Fraatz and invited him to send in sixteen of his full-time missionaries to receive dental care. Dr. Blair Hale performed an x-ray on one of these Elders, and discovered an abnormal growth in his jaw. Consultation was made with several of the oral surgeons, and a panorex x-ray was ordered, which was followed by an MRI. It was soon determined that this young man had a very serious and rare tumor. The oral surgeons determined it was imperative that this young man be brought to the U.S. for treatment.

After much hard work here by a number of doctors who participated in the Nicaraguan brigada along with the Area Presidency in Guatemala, I am pleased to announce this young missionary, Elder Aroche, arrived in the U.S. on May 12th and was picked up by Wade and Lesa Peers at the Salt Lake Airport. They said he was very hungry, so they gave him a proper introduction to America and treated him to Hires Big H for some real American food. The Peers family has warmly and generously opened their home to him and will be caring for him during his stay in the U.S. Lesa reports that he already feels like a member of the family. Dr. Wade Peers and Dr. Niles Herrod will be overseeing his care.

On May 13th Elder Aroche received a CAT scan and a biopsy was performed by Dr. Peers and with the diagnoses now made he will be receiving surgery this coming Tuesday. President Fraatz selected Elder Aroche from some 200 missionaries serving in Nicaragua as one of only sixteen full-time missionaries to receive treatment at the clinic. Up until the time Dr. Hale spotted the tumor on the x-ray, there had been no indication of a problem. Untreated, this tumor could have become life threatening, and early treatment will likely prevent a lifetime of disfigurement. As Dr. Herrod put it, “In my opinion, the discovery and treatment of this young elder was worth the entire trip.”
What an amazing thing to witness the miracles of the Lord and the great outpouring of love from each of you that continues to flow.

Con cariño,

David Sheets

God bless

David Sheets – dsheets@beprepared.com
Stan Miller – stan@stanandsharon.com
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