AYUDA Trojans: South Pasadena Latter-day Saint Clinic --- Saturday, June 25, 2011

Have you ever seen a better looking sterilization crew?

100 PATIENTS! What an amazing feeling it is to work all day and see the results of your efforts. There were plenty of patients at this clinic and we were able to address all of them and be a part of improving their oral health. This was a new and special location for AYUDA in the fact that we had never been to this site before. At the same time AYUDA was founded by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1967, so in a way, we were returning to our heritage, which is always a special occasion.

One of the fear factors of holding a clinic in a new location is whether or not the patients will be there for us to treat. Bishop Muhlestein of the South Pasadena Ward recruited the help of Dan Snow, an LDS member of the South Pasadena Ward and USC student dentist in the class of 2014, in order to overcome this obstacle. Dan did a great job, along with his committee, of advertising the clinic to the local area and he was able to successfully sign up each of the 100 patients that reported to the clinic. He organized all of the patients to come in as groups of 15-20 persons every half hour. This gave us a great patient flow throughout the clinic. Thanks again to Dan for all the hard work that he put into organizing this clinic.

One of my favorite patients of the day was probably a young autistic boy that came to clinic. It was his first ever experience with the dentist. His parents were a little nervous, so they asked me if they could borrow a couple dental instruments (mirror and explorer) to let him get used to them before he got in the chair. The boys therapist was there and everything just to make sure the whole process went smoothly. Once in the chair, Andrew French was the operator along with Tom Erickson as the assistant. I didn’t get to observe the entire procedure, but the parents came up to me after and said that everything went great and that their son was able to receive his first prophylactic cleaning! They were very impressed with the way that Andrew and Tom were able to work with their son, calm him down, and provide the dental care. What an experience! That boy will remember his first visit to the dentist for the rest of his life. Even better is the fact that he had a positive experience that will give him a strong support to continue seeing the dentist for the rest of his life! That is the power and professionalism of AYUDA. Great job guys!

Thanks again to everyone for all you hard work and diligence and hope to see you at the next clinic!