You Better Belize it!

You Better Belize It!

Dec. 19-27, 2017

In Belize City,
we crowded our way onto a local water taxi.

It was almost dark when we arrived in Ambergis Cay
 to join Mark, Christy, Anson, Bella, Sofiya and Hadyn.

The next morning,
the view from our hotel room was breathtaking.

During the following days, we enjoyed many activities . . .

Swimming with sharks

Snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea 

Riding around San Pedro Island in golf carts

Seeing how chocolate is made

River boating

Playing at Secret Beach

Visiting Mayan pyramids

Cave tubing

Attending church

And eating.

We saw amazing sights . . .

Ancient sculptures

Beautiful sunsets

And a mysterious sea creature.

Best of all, we got to spend time with some of our favorite people . . .

Mark and Christy

Elder Harris and Mark

Sofiya

Grandpa and Anson

Bella

Grandpa and Haydn

Sister and Elder Harris

Christy, Anson, Haydn (front), Mark, Bella and Sofiya

It was a great Christmas vacation with 

Anson, Christy, Bella, Sofs, Hadyn and Mark.

Mr. and Mrs Simmons

 On December 16, 2017, we celebrated Nate and Lex's wedding in Meridian, Idaho.

Family and friends came together for this joyous occasion.

Everyone loved dressing up and having pictures taken in the costumed photo shop.

After the wedding, we continued to have fun with our family.

Dax and Zane loved swimming in the motel pool.

We played card games with our beautiful granddaughters.

Maddy

Paisley

Jessica

Kendra

And, of course, we had fun eating.

Marie, Julie, Blake, Trudy, Jay, Emily, Holly and Andrew
(with Christian behind the camera)

Thanks, Nate and Lex for letting us celebrate with you. We wish you happiness and success in your life together.

An Ounce of Prevention

Some of our patients come to us without ever having seen a dentist.

These children have already
experienced excruciating pain in their young lives.

Their teeth are literally falling apart.

Other patients have seen dentists who gave them poor dental care. One little girl had been to another Guatemalan dentist who, for some reason, had put silk sutures in her gums. Those kind of sutures do not dissolve. Perhaps because of lack of money, the little girl never returned to that dentist to get the sutures removed. By the time Dr. Allred saw her, she had a potentially life-threatening infection around the old stitches; and the roots of her two deciduous front teeth were protruding out of her gums. With no facilities for general anesthesia, it took four of us to hold the little girl still so that Bob could help her. 

If you could look closer,
 you would see tears in our eyes.

An important way of helping our patients is to teach them to prevent cavities.

We brush their teeth for them.

Then we teach them to brush.

Pink disclosing solution
 shows  where  plaque is located.
"Brush until there is no more pink..

We also apply fluoride as  preventative care.

Some of our patients have been coming to Tio Jaun clinic for years. Their oral health is much better. Occasionally,  their teeth are perfect.

Years of good dental hygiene pay off.

Dentists say that their goal is to put themselves out of business.
That is certainly the goal of the dentists in our clinic.

If we can see these kids at a young enough age, and encourage them over the years, they can have great dental health for a lifetime.

These school kids benefit from the care of the current dentists and from the outstanding care of dentists who preceded us in the clinic.