Refining Those Pearly Whites!!

We are incredibly blessed to have a dental team visiting from Minnesota that came to do some work on our children!  This has been routine for a few years at CSC for a dentist to come.  Kris and Heidi Erickson have come in the past with Kris' dad to do dental work.  Since he can't come anymore, they recruited their dentist friend, Matt Struve, and his wife Krista to come this time!  This is Matt and Krista's first time at CSC!  It has been so wonderful to have them here to tackle this huge project. 

Heidi sporting the Dental Team's shirts!  Heidi is the chairman of the CSC Board in MN!

I'm pretty sure the staff was a LITTLE more excited about the dentist coming than the kids were!  When they heard "THE DENTIST" was coming, many of them cringed a bit and got a "Nooo....are you serious?" look on their face.  Thankfully though, once the dental team arrived, they decided they really liked Matt and the rest of the team.  I'm not so sure they've loved all the procedures that have had to be done, but they still have managed some smiles and even some high-fives for him after their procedures. :)

The really cool cardboard dental chair, all set up in the lab in the infirmary.

Supplies galore!

Matt spent all of Monday cleaning kids' teeth, and the team began to put together a schedule for the rest of the week, determining how much time each child needed for extra work.  This included filling a zillion cavities and lots of extractions.  Much to do with about 65 kids!

Dr. Matt hard at work!

Krista and Heidi kept the schedule and all the records accurate!

Kris was the faithful helper for Matt!

Matt kept all the dental notes on their charts.

After the first day, the kids were coming back to school after their cleanings announcing how many cavities they had.  My class started to get into a discussion about what cavities were and what was the dentist going to do about it.  That led to researching cavities and the procedure the dentist executes, and looking at several pictures.  I did my very best to explain to the children that it is such a BLESSING that we have a wonderful dentist here who can fix these problems on our teeth.  Although it hurts, he's doing good things for our mouths!

I stopped in a few times to check in and see how it's going up in the infirmary for the dental team.  One day I was just going to take a couple quick pictures, and ended up staying twenty minutes as one of my students sobbed and shook through her whole procedure. :(  I felt like I was having a "mom moment", trying to comfort her and help her feel better, as I was thinking, "Oh no, she's in so much pain!  This is so good for her though to have this done, but oh, does it have to hurt so much?  I wish I could take away the pain!"  She eventually made it through the injections, the cavities being filled, and the extraction of a tooth.  I'm pretty sure she was VERY thankful to get out of that chair though and hear that she didn't need to come back!!!  I was with a couple of our preschoolers during their procedures too.  Even though it wasn't the most pleasant experience for them, they were so brave and made it through!

Uhhh...this big smile didn't last long! :(  I was going to just snap a few shots, but ended up sitting with her during her entire procedure, trying to calm the tears! 

TOUGH GUY preschooler was SO brave!

Picking out his prize after the procedure

Thumbs up - way to go, buddy!!

Waiting to be called in for about an hour's worth of work.  She gets the prize for the most time with the dentist this week!

Feeling like a mom again as I sat with this preschooler for her procdure.

As I've sat in on a few procedures, it has been fascinating to finally see dental work from the OTHER side of the chair!  It was incredible to watch him do cleanings, give injections, drill away at all the decay, and put fillings in the cavities.   I even worked up the courage to watch an extraction and a stitch being put in - wow!  I'm truly amazed.  Not enough to switch professions, but I am impressed and fascinated!  Matt did an awesome job!!

The Erickson's kids - former CSC kids!

The lab proved an excellent space for the work to be done.  FAR bigger than the old infirmary, where the previous dentist needed to work.

Heidi with the cool crockpot-looking-thingy that cleaned the tools!

After the pain wore off, many of the kids were excited to show off their shiny, new-and-improved teeth!  Take a look at these kids' pearly whites!! 

A few of our kids received a lot of work to fix their troubled teeth.  Take a look!! 

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

BEFORE

Half done!!! 

AFTER!!!  WOW!!!  He was SOOO thrilled about his fixed teeth!!  One of the aunties even said that after he eats, he runs to the bathroom to see if his teeth are still white! :)

Yay for our dental team for all their hard work!!  We are so thankful for them!!!  Praise God for bringing them here!!!