Sonny's Ukraine Dental Trip

Here is a video of the dental mission trip that I went on with my good friend Devin from dental school to Kiev, Ukraine. Devin had served his LDS mission to Kiev and this was his first time back since. It was amazing how well he remembered both Ukrainian and Russian. We had a short layover in Amsterdam on the way over and back and in case you were wondering all of the rumors about Amsterdam are true - it even makes Las Vegas look tame. We stayed in a small village just outside of Kiev and worked at an orphanage about an hour away. You''ll notice in the slide presentation that the kids are always wearing jackets both inside and outside of the orphange. They do not turn on heat in the ENTIRE country until the 15th of October each year. It was already in the 50s during the day when we were there in late September.

We stayed with Richard and Vicki Nelson. A couple from the states that had a very successful dental practice outside of Seattle, Washington. They sold everything and decided to do dental work full time to help the orphans of Ukraine. Their story is very inspirational and this trip would not have been possible without them. They opened up their house to us and were excellent hosts - thanks for everything. It was an amazing experience to work in the orphanage. They miraculously even had a dental chair. However, it is cheaper to send the kids to the town dentist then have someone come to look at the kids at the orphanage. We were able to treat around 60-70 kids and to our surprise not a single kid had ever had a filling before. The only type of dental treatment that the kids get is when they get a toothache or a major tooth infection that causes swelling - emergency stuff. Since it costs extra to get your tooth numbed up with local anesthetic in Ukraine, the orphans do not even get any anesthetic when they get their teeth extracted. They only use a little topical gel which is that stuff they rub on your gums before they give you the shot at the dental office that usually tastes like lemon or cherry. Just in case you were wondering, the topical does not take away any of the pain from the extractions.

These kids were so excited to get their teeth worked on. Devin and I did some of the biggest fillings we had ever done before at the orphanage. Sometimes it felt like we were building them an entire new tooth. I have worked on kids at the dental school but none of them were as eager as these children to have their dental work done for them. The last day we were at the orphanage one of the girls, Nina 13yrs old, wanted to skip lunch so that we could pull one of her teeth that was very badly broken down. I was a little nervous taking out her tooth because it was broken down to the bone level and we did not have any of the supplies to do any major surgical extractions. So I said a prayer before I started the extraction that everything would go smoothly and that the tooth would come out quickly and painlessly for Nina. I think that Heavenly Father was watching over us because surprisingly the tooth came out very quickly and a lot easier that it should have. Even though Devin and I only spent a few days at the orphanage we grew very attached to the kids. The last day that I was there I called Emily and told her that I wanted to bring home 3 kids from the orphange - Nina, Sophia, and Ulia - all sisters whose parents had passed away some time ago. Right now it is very difficult to adopt from Ukraine. They do not let you pick the kids that you want to adopt and a lot of the time you have to pay a number of bribes to the orphanage directors and other adoption agencies that it ends up costing thousands of dollars. We ran into a family that just adopted a child and they said that it cost them over $45,000. I hope that you enjoy the slide show, I put it to music and included some statistics about orphanages in Ukraine on the pictures we took at the orphange.