Dentistry Uncensored with Howard Farran

How to perform dentistry faster, easier, higher in quality and lower in cost. Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dentistry-uncensored-with-howard-farran/id916907356

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It is just a huge honor for me today on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be podcast interviewing William D. Silverthorne and his wife Lily Silverthorne who are right now down in Peru. They retired and on the left of that is Monica Dunn, RDH, a hygienist in Paris Hilton or Paris, France. Paris, Illinois. Paris, Illinois. I thought you were from Paris, France. How did all of a sudden you go to Illinois? Did you just drive from France to Illinois just for this podcast? It kind of feels like it. So William Silverthorne and his wife Lily retired in 2009. William from the computer industry and Lily from government construction CAD CAM project work. Two years after retiring, a very devastating earthquake hit the area of Peru where Lily was born.

She felt strongly she was called to do something for these people. They founded LAMA, which stands for Latin American Missions Association, in a village that is surrounded by five others. They broke ground and opened the doors of La Mission in 2013. It took a few more years to add a few more floors and then have resident missionaries present from 2015 until now 2020. The purpose of the mission is to be a second home for residents, latchkey children's safe place, a place to do homework. To acquire clothing, assistance in construction needs, health, education, family counseling, spiritual support. LAMA La Mission has had many groups, churches, youth missions, etc., come to help them at different times of the year.

The past year, they had a wonderful visit from Williamsville Church in Illinois, where their youth group, as well as Monica Dunn, who is the mother-in-law of the youth leader of that church, and she's a gorgeous bald man. If you saw his picture, you'd never watch it. Brad Pitt movie again. They did a lot of pre-planning with the local clinic and the trip was considered a huge success as a pioneering effort to build strong relationships with the local schools and clinics, building missions and serving low-income families in Peru to bring hope, love, and support to the Latin Americans there and in the U.S. and around the world by educating, teaching, informing, and equipping not only the economically poor but the spiritually poor.

And I could read on and on and on for 40 days and 40 nights of all the things they did. They got great YouTube videos, but Monica Dunn on the left, hygienist, William and Lily on the right. Thank you so much for coming on the show today because it means a lot to me. I remember in a couple of times in my career, I thought I had a bunch of stress and problems with the office and kids and this and that, and then you go do a missionary trip for four days with five kids. It's like 5,000 people that don't have electricity. And it was just like a spiritual awakening that I don't really have all these problems.

And the other thing I always thought that was so confusing is they seem to be more happy than the people you run into in Tokyo and New York. I mean, if you've ever been knocked down by a 65-year-old lady trying to get in a subway and then you go to these poor areas, and I wanted to call it the giggle factor because they're just always so-so. They're smiling and they're so happy, but you look at them like, wait a minute, you don't have a Nintendo 64, a trampoline, and a go-kart, so you can't be happy, but they're happy. So thanks for coming on the show today. And my first question to you, Monica, is you're a hygienist. Where does all this come from?

How did you go from dental hygiene, where you're supposed to be doing calculus, to now Latin American ministries? Where did all this come about? Well, there were a couple of factors. For one thing, my children, my middle children are from Peru, and they're adults now, but it was always my desire to go back and use my talents that the Lord gave me to serve the people in the area that my children came from. So when the opportunity came to visit La Mission and meet William and Lily and partner with them, I jumped on that. The second factor would be my experience in dentistry. I have devoted my career to public health. So in the United States, I go into schools and provide preventive dental services and work with children and families that don't have access to dental care.

My agency also has a fixed-site dental clinic that focuses on people without access to dental care because they either are uninsured or underinsured. So you're a— You work with the Edgar County Public Health Department and Dental Clinic? Yes, I do. And how long— You know, it's kind of interesting. There's 10 specialties in dentistry. Everybody knows about ortho, endo, oral surgery, but they never talk about the public health specialty. They always want to bring in—they say, we're going to bring in a roundtable of specialists in the endodontist, pediatric dentist, oral surgeon, periodontist. Public health is the—it's the redheaded stepchild that never gets any attention. How did—why were you drawn to the 10th—especially in public health as opposed to private health? Well, actually, that had a lot to do with my kiddos.

I went—when I graduated from school, I would go into private dentistry, but when I adopted my kids from Peru, I needed to be closer to home, and a job became—I actually quit my job to homeschool. My son and—to be there for my kids, and a school nurse called me and said, hey, we're going to start a sealant program. They're looking for a dental hygienist to work in the schools to apply sealants to children's teeth, and this is way back in 1997, and that was my first experience in public health, and I loved it. So I was an independent contractor for many years and served several counties doing their sealant program. Eventually, I – I got my first full-time public health job with the Edgar County Public Health Department, and from there, I went – we built a fixed-site clinic and offered a full scope of services,

and from there, I went to a hospital, a local hospital, and was on the grant writing team and planning and development team to build a mobile dental clinic that served underserved children. And all these years later, I have come back to land at my–my original place, and I'm at the Edgar County Public Health Department again, and we've made a lot of expansions, and I thought, you know, it was wonderful that I have had all this experience in program building and planning and development so that I could partner with La Mission, and hopefully we can—together can make a difference to those families in Peru. So, you know, it—the rich—I mean, you go back through history and ask anybody—I watch this video of an economist walking down to Manhattan where the—the big iconic—what is that called with the big–Time Square.

And he–and he walked back there every 50 years or so and asked the people, what do you–what do you think of New York? What do you think of the government? What do you think of jobs? And they'd always say the same thing. You know, this place is ruled by the rich. There's too much bureaucracy. There's too much corruption. What—what—what parallels do you see—in America, we always talk about the rich, the billionaires. What parallels do you see between public health, treating underprivileged in America, all the way to Peru? Do you see any connections there? I do. I—when I went to Peru, I—I saw mouths that were very similar to what I saw in the CDC in the United States. Yeah. So we in the United States have a—a real public health crisis in terms of oral health for our children.

But when I went to Peru, they're—there're struggling with the same things. They lack the resources that we have in the United States. Here in the U.S., we have had a real push—to create safety nets and provide care to the underserved. But in Peru, they don't have those resources. So families that can't afford dental care or don't have access for whatever reason, there's not someone coming along to create a safety net dental clinic. And that is—a dream for me. And I know that it is a dream for William & Lily to be able to bring not only dental services, but health services to the area to care for those kids that—you know—are struggling. There's not going to be a pot of money come along to build a clinic for them. Wow.

So same question to William & Lily. Where—where does this come from? I mean, William, you're from the computer industry. You should be dreaming about DRAM and random access memory chips and what—and Lily's from CAD-CAM. How do you go from memory DRAM and CAD-CAM to living eight months out of the year in Peru? It's a big change. It really is. The—when we first did it, I wasn't as accustomed—I wasn't ready to be retired as much as my wife was. So I pushed back a little bit and did some consulting and some odd jobs and things and did it part-time. But you just really can't do this part-time and do it right. And so we—I gave in and basically jumped into it. And I— I don't speak the language down here. Lily does.

She's bilingual. So she's—she's fine. She's got two passports, all that good stuff. But I— Is the language—is the language just Spanish? Is it Spanish or is it a Peruvian dialect? Well, where we are, it's Spanish. If you go up in the mountains, Cusco is a native language for the Incan descendants. So Cusco is a very popular language here as well. But that's in the mountains. And I just—and I just want to remind all the Italians listening that—the tomatoes were discovered by the Incas, and nobody in Italy had a tomato until 16oo. Potatoes. Potatoes. Potatoes. And tomatoes. And tomatoes. Yeah, potato, tomato, same thing. I'm serious. So when the Italians are always talking about their special sauce, you mean—oh, you mean Inca Indian sauce. And they're—yeah, Google it. That's why God made Google.

All right. Yeah. You just educated my Peruvian wife. She's always told me about the potatoes. I'm always bragging about Irish potatoes. She goes, you don't know nothing. It's actually even more bizarre. So it was just one jungle in Peru where all the legumes—so carbohydrates and sugars are carbon-hydrogen oxygen. But to make a protein, you got to add a nitrogen. Well, the air is 20% oxygen. It's 40% nitrogen. And the legumes, the lima beans, the navy beans, every type of bean, figured out how to get that nitrogen out of the air to go from a sugar or carbohydrate to a protein. And every single legume on Earth—you can't even say they were found in Peru. It was one area of Peru, one little jungle, coughed out all 40 legumes.

But the country also coughed out the potato and the tomato. So I'm all Peruvian. Yeah. Well, you got to come down here, Howard. Well, you're welcome. I'm home here. Well, I want to. And the reason I'm doing this, Monica, is because if you go into a dental town or a hygiene town and you type down 'burnout', there's so many people that are burned out. And I think they're burned out because they lost their mission, their purpose, their play. And I can—I mean, even people that aren't dentists. Like, I have a friend up the street who is a practice management consultant, and he went on a trip with one of his doctors to Haiti. And Greg Stanley came back, and he was never even the same person.

And sometimes when you think that, you know, that they're—you just don't feel like you're doing anything that matters. You don't feel like you're on a mission. You don't feel anything worthwhile. So when you guys—when I get you on, I'm trying to put you in the right place at the right time so somebody confused, burned out, bored, doesn't even know what they're doing. And people are saying, 'Are you going to buy a CAD camera or a laser?' And he's like, 'I don't even know or care.' They can go spend a week with you, and it changes you. I mean, have you seen that with missionaries? Have you seen people go down there, and it's a life-changing experience? Oh, yeah. Certainly. Oh, absolutely. We've got them that they come back second time.

They want a second trip. The Williamsville Church is talking about coming back every other year with their youth group. We've had a girl down here last year from high school and—no, from college up in Canada. She took two trips last year to come down here. So, yeah, they really do get invigorated. They love working with the children. I think a lot of it is seeing—you put your life in perspective in the right place. Absolutely. I think that comes—yeah. And I think the dental side has got to be—with all the burnout that goes on in your industry, I'm sure, and medical as well, that this is a good break for you. Yeah, I guess it would be good.

So my point I was getting at earlier, too, is because I don't speak the languages, but when I do leave here, I really count the days to come back. These kids are so lovable. They really are. And you don't even have to know the language, and just with a couple of words, and it's just, you know, the language of hugging and letting them know you did something good for them and you feel good about it is you can't wait to come back. So, Monica, have you seen mostly dentists go down there with the life-changing experience? Have you met hygienists that got down there, office managers? Who on the team have you seen just come back a different person? Well, I have seen people come back a different person from other mission trips.

But this particular ministry really started last year, last June. I just went down to just see what the need was, kind of assess the need and see what we could do for this community because I knew that they had suffered devastating effects from an earthquake and that it was a very poverty-stricken area and that they didn't have the access to dental care that they needed. So as far as seeing people come back from this particular mission, I have not witnessed that yet, but that is to come. I have seen people come from other mission trips, and it is a life-changing experience. And you can’t imagine. I know for me, when I was down there and caring for these families, I was so struck by how grateful the parents were because they, you know, one day they had no idea what to do.

They knew they had children in pain. They knew they had children who needed help. They knew they themselves needed help. And the next day, they had a better answer. Not the final answer, but a better answer. And they were so grateful. And it does humble you and make you really stop and think about all of the things that we have in this country that people don’t always have access to. So I am anxious to take. I have some dental hygiene students that I think will be traveling. I have a couple with me this June, and I have a couple, maybe three hygienists that are preparing to go. And we are looking for dentists. That is our greatest need at this point. We'll be taking our dentists on June 24th and be there for about 10 days.

So I'm calling all dentists to contact us, and we would love to take you with us to Peru. So how do they contact you? I mean, when you say you're looking for these people, how would they find you? How would they contact you? William, would you like to talk about the website? Sure. We have a website, lamaministry.org, L-A-M-A, ministry with a Y, .org. So why did you go Lama with only one L instead of Lima Bean? We were talking about Lima Beans. They named the capital. We got to change that name. How could we go from Latin American Missions Association to Latin International Missions? He's trying to change to Lima. We got to go to Lima Bean. But we're not in Lima, for one. We're not in Lima.

So your website is lama, L-A-M-A, ministry.org. But then you have another one, lamaministry.org, forward slash, Y-W. A-M. Yeah, we just started a few years ago working with Youth with a Mission. So it's still on the same website. That's a subpage. Okay, that's Y-W-A-M stands for Youth with a Mission. Youth with a Mission. And you get some young missionaries down here, people from high school and college. Maybe we should go D-M-A-M, Dentist with a Mission. But you need dentists. D-W-A-M. Let's patent that. D-W-A-M. Yeah. I like that. A dentist with a mission. Because so many people talk about it. I remember, like, when I opened up my dental office in '87, I was demoralized because I had come from Kansas City's water fluoridation and almost never saw pediatric decay.

And then I was in my office doing pulp, autumn, yeast, and chrome still crowns. So I said, I'm not going to sit on an assembly line from 25 to 65 and drill, fill, and build stuff that shouldn't even be in their mouth. So every Friday, we didn't see patients because I was so young and dumb, I thought I'd take, like, three Fridays to fluoridate Phoenix, right? And it ended up taking two years. But you know what I noticed? Those staff members, on the day we didn’t see patients and we were all working on trying to get eight city councilmen to pass water fluoridation along with the mayor, that day had more purpose than the whole rest of their week. And it set the tone for the whole office.

And now I see dentists like, say, one of my buddies, Tim Taylor. He is a massively successful dentist. Money. He's a successful dentist. But you know where he draws more purpose? Going down to the dental school and working on Friday and they pay you enough for, you know, maybe a lunch at Subway or something. But he would rather go teach the children on Friday and he gets more out of that than the Monday through Thursday. So humans need a mission, don't they? They do. They do. We are here doing it. Talk to that dentist. He's burned out. He's fried. She's a hygienist. And talk to them. Well, llama.ministry.org slash dental. We have a subpage if they just write that one down.

And there's a description there of what we've done with Monica and her group last year and what we're planning to do again this year and the dates and the cost and a link for email. We hopefully will soon have a link in there for actually filling out an application. So we're working on that. So just llamaministry.org. Is there an email there? Yes. There's an email link. Yeah. Yeah. And the email link is what? Just info at llamaministry.org. But there's a link there that says click this for email. Okay. There it is. Drop us an email. There you go. And the email is info@llamaministry.org. Very, very good. Yeah. So that is it. So why are you looking for dentists? Why is that more common than other stuff? Talk about why you have dental needs.

Well, when I was there last year, I saw so many kids who had really never been to the dentist. There were a lot of bombed out teeth. There were a lot of teeth that not only needed to be extracted, but there were teeth that could be saved. And a lot of children that were in pain and the local dental clinics don't have the capacity to take care of these kids. And much, you know, very similar to the United States, kids without access to dental care, whatever the barrier is, be it a financial barrier, a transportation barrier, a barrier to because the parents maybe aren't available. Yeah. And so we've got to find an alternative for these kids because it doesn't exist in Peru.

In the United States, as I mentioned before, there was a push to create safety net dental clinics. And we have those in the United States now, although in Illinois, those clinics are in danger because public health clinics have not been cared for as they should have. So if I were speaking to a dental hygienist or a dentist, I would say. You know, you cannot imagine how different it is to walk away from your clinic and your overhead and your staff problems and your bookkeeping problems and walk in and make a difference in a life. You don't have to worry about who's going to build this, if it's going to be built correctly, if you're going to get the reimbursement that you should get, if all of those things that we worry about on a day-to-day basis are; you can check at the airport.

When you head to Peru and all you have to focus on is the kids and the parents who have barriers to care and need someone to step in and make a difference in their lives. And if you want a longer term public health or mission experience, please feel free to contact me. I can hook you up with public health in the United States. And how would they contact you? My email is mydundun67 at gmail. So is that mydun or does your middle name start with a Y? My middle name starts with Y. Really? What is it? It's Yvonne. Yvonne. Oh, Yvonne. Why Yvonne? Well, it's pronounced Yvonne, but it's spelled with a Y. Y-V-O-N-N-E. Yvonne. Y-V-O-N-N-E? Yes.

I thought that was kind of like MySpace, MyDun. And what's the number 67? What's that signify for you? Well, my husband created my email account and he put the year of my birth there. So now everyone knows I was born in 1967. Oh, that is awesome. That is awesome. Oh my gosh. So now we know. Let's see. I have to get out my trusty calculator. I'll be 53 on Thursday. You’ll be 53 on Thursday. Well, happy birthday. And for your birthday, you would like a dentist to email you at mydun67@gmail.com. And you would explain to them about public health opportunities in America and in Peru? Yes, I would be happy to. Yes. Well, let's talk about that. Because public health. I mean, they're only. We’re only going to talk about orthodontics and Invisalign.

And if there’s anything bad in dentistry, it’s a smile. Direct Club was going to do it for one third the cost. It’s like, dude, dude, how many Americans could never afford ortho? Let's just start with there at a 325 million Americans. How many of them are due to family economics, challenges, substance abuse, personal issues, mental illness? What percent of Americans can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps? Because they don't have any boots on and would be challenged by that. Well, that's a really good question. And I'm not sure what the percentage is, but I do know what I see when I go out into our communities and into our schools. And, you know, just just this year, I have seen children who really are barely able to function with their their teeth.

They do need orthodontic treatment, but they don't meet the score and they're on Medicaid. So they're not going to get treatment. This year, I saw a young lady who was a freshman in high school who needed to have some of her maxillary anteriors extracted and needed a partial and, you know, has suffered being made fun of. I had a 13-year-old who needs full-mouth extraction. And we don't have enough dentists in public health. We don't have enough dental professionals, period, in public health and especially in Illinois. We struggle in Illinois because our reimbursement rates are about 40 percent of usual and customary. And, you know, many, many years ago, over 20 years ago, 23 years ago, there was more funding for public health clinics.

But the the funding to sustain, you know, if we're only making 40 percent of usual and customary, we still need to hire a staff that is quality. We need quality staff members. We need quality equipment and all of the things that you need in a dental office. Yet our reimbursement rates are so low. So really, when you when you think about what you want to do with your life and I have known many dentists. One of my very good friends retired from his practice and came to work in public health. And he spent the last 10 years of 10 or 12 years of of his dental career in public health and just affected so many kids and families. And so, you know, we have a need for that.

Many states I know in Illinois, there is a loan repayment for dentists coming out of college and needing to get their loans repaid. So if they come to work for a public health clinic. They can apply for that loan repayment plan. And that has been really helpful for for many dentists. And, you know, there's lots of other things to talk about. There may be dentists that would just like to devote a day to public health or they would like to do some volunteer work in public health. So, you know, I need dentists to go to Peru with me. I'd love to talk to dentists as well who would just like to devote some time to public health for people that just don't have access to care without people who are dedicated to them.

So, William and Lily, you know, the interesting thing about Peru is that, you know, if you look at the globe, Peru is actually more east than Miami, Florida. I mean, if you flew straight up from Peru, you would you would miss Miami, Florida and land in New Jersey. But it's on the ring of fire. And so, the Atlantic, you know, you can see how Africa fits in the Caribbean and you can see how it's pulling apart. Well, if it's pulling apart, the opposite is the the Pacific is compressing. That's why you see Hawaii volcanoes shoot up in the right in the middle. And when you look at the when you look at the Peru, I mean, it sits on the Earth's ring of fire, a horseshoe shaped geological disaster zone, which sees 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur on the ring of fire.

The seismic region stretches along the Pacific coastline. It goes all the way up to San Fran, around Alaska. Alaska is the only place that had an earthquake of a I mean, they've had an earthquake of a 10 all the way down Japan. I remember the first time I was in Anchorage, Alaska, I was walking with this guy down the street and we walk up the stairways and I said, why is there a stairway right in the middle of the street? He goes, seriously? And I go, yeah. He goes, look to your right, look to the left. I said, what? And the whole land was a meter higher. He goes, the last time we had an earthquake of a 10, one side went up a meter, one side went down.

But anyway, but the question I'm asking is how much of the poverty is the poverty different in Peru because of the earthquake zone, the ring of fire? Or do you see similarities with the poor in Paris, Illinois? Is it the break? Breakdown of the family? Is it economics? Is it mental illness? What, what, what similarities do you see of the same Homo sapien living in two different countries, two different languages on two different sides of the equator? Well, I think the poverty in Peru is more like because of the the system, the government system here. Um, we did this. Not enough. Uh, uh, equality here. Um, so if you find a job, you find it because you have some connections, uh, or in some time, it's just tradition.

People just like to live the way they live and they have no other choice, I think is most of the time it's a money issue. They don't make a lot of money, especially people that don't have education that we we are working on the farm area. Um, so most of these people. Uh, uh, don't make a lot of money. They make like maybe 10, $15 a day and work, you know, even Monday through Saturday and the children's are late by themselves. Uh, you see a lot more poverty in in the, um, in the province, not necessarily in Lima, but the Metropolitan Lima, you know, you have people, different kind of people, middle class, rich people, poor people, but we see it.

And especially since I left, uh, uh, Peru, uh, more than 50 years ago, actually the age of Monica, I left in 67. Um, a lot of people that they left, they, they, and is the Highlands and came down to the coast to find job because there's no job in the, in the Highlands. Everybody's a farmer and they can live on the farm and they wanted to go to the university. They want to, you know, they want to have a better life. So, so they come down to, to the coast and, and that's what. Okay. It creates a population and, and, but it most more is like culture. I would say, um, that's what a lot of people try to go to another country to go to USA, Canada, even, uh, Japan and Europe.

Uh, but, um, uh, the poverty is, it's the same, but, uh, I think, uh, people, uh, they are poor here. Uh, they seem to be much happier. They, they really, they're ready. It's 10:00 And. They're corner and sell stone, and you, and you, you can sell the stone is, uh, Peru is, uh, I can talk for Peru, is a very capitalistic country because you can sell anything in the street and you, and, you know, and people buy it. Uh, and, um, uh, so they don't, the poor people don't depend on the government, the government; the government doesn't give them welfare or food stamps, or, you know, they do have a medical, uh, social medicine. But it takes six months to get an appointment and, uh, you know, but if you work, if you're upper class and you work in a nice company, you'll have your own business, then you can afford to go to a private, private hospital, private clinic and get better care.

But, um, yeah, it's, it's a lot of difference in, in the poverty, poverty in Peru versus the poverty in US, uh, people, if people in USA want to be poor, it's because they want to be poor, you know, but in Peru. I guess, uh, uh, they don't have a chance. They try, but they don't have a chance to, to excel unless you have, you know, connections or money. Yeah. The earthquake point you brought up, it is an active area. Once every other month when we're down here, we get a 5.6 or a 5.2 or something that we do post about on our, on our newsletter. But, um, the earthquake was a couple of years before we came down. It was 2007 was the big one that this area is still recovering from.

Uh, and that was, uh, uh, tsunami and everything on Pisco, which is an hour away from us. So it was a pretty big one. Uh, and, um, that's, that's, that's the thing they've been rebuilding from some places you see around here. It looked like it happened yesterday, but, uh, people are recovering. Well, it's, it's, the weather is beautiful. It's like, uh, San Diego weather. Uh, it's pretty good. Uh, you know, very mild differences between winter and summer. Uh, the seasons are the opposite down here, but, um, uh, the people are great. Um, and, um, you just fall in love with them. Yeah. Yeah. They just, they just need care. They just need care. So what, um, it's, it's so, um, it's so amazing how 5,000 years recorded history.

Everyone's talked about the government the same way. They're the problem, not the solution. They're thugs. They cause war. They kill people. And it just amazes me how they still want to believe that the government's still the good guy. Uh, but the good guy is the individual. It's the family. It's your own values. And, uh, everybody that says they're going to be the, the, the, the good guy in the government, uh, they, they, they always get there and then prove us, uh, completely wrong. Um, but I think it's, uh, interesting how, um, whenever I go, um, lecture in another country, um, you can always spot the Mormons a mile away because it's two young guys on a bicycle and they got their white shirt on and all that.

And I almost wrecked the car, jumped out of the taxi, ran clear across the street and said, 'Hey, I'm from Arizona.' Um, I live in a right, you know, that's, you know, right in the second Mormon capital of the world. Um, and it's young, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed kids. And they're usually like 18, 19, 20. It's kind of between high school and college. And I'll say, how long you been here? And they go, well, our mission's, you know, a year or two and I've been down here a year. And I always, I always say, I shut up and I say, look, um, you've been down here a year. Uh, we're in Panama. Why do you think Panama is poor? Then say, where you from? Where you're from in Utah.

And they always say the same. They always say the same thing. They never say economic policy. They never say tariffs. I never, they always say, well, it's government corruption and the breakdown of the family. And, and you're like, my God, you're, you're 19, you're, you're, you already found the whole answer. They always say that. And then I'll say, so give me some examples of what you mean by break down the family and it's, um, um, well, you know, these, the, I know this one guy, he's made five babies. He's with five different girls, but he doesn't help raise them. What, what, what, what have you seen? Um, that's poverty producing and Paris, Illinois, and, and obviously Monica, you knew, uh, when you got to Paris, Illinois, you're in the wrong Paris.

You should have immediately flown to Paris, France. I can't believe you're going to be 50 on a Thursday and at what 53 or how old? 53. 53. And you still haven't made it back to Paris, France, but what, what do you, what do you see from Paris, France to Peru from Paris to Peru, uh, boy, that'd be a name of a great podcast title. Uh, let's call this, uh, from Paris to Peru, um, what, what is, what is the, the problem cause? What is the most root cause of poverty from Paris to Peru poverty from Paris to Peru? Can we name that podcast? This, yeah, I love that poverty from Paris to Peru. What is the root cause of poverty?

Well, I absolutely believe that the breakdown in the family is one of the main issues, um, from, uh, we see a lot of people who are, their situation is perpetuated generation after generation. They continue to make the same choices that they watched their parents make. And. And I often tell my staff when they're struggling to understand why someone is doing what they're doing, you have to understand that they have only been taught to build a house with straw and mud, and they're not going to use nails and, and wood and hammers because they've only been taught with straw and mud. And those are the tools that they have. And can they, can they learn to use different things? Yes. But it would, it's a learning process.

And so many times the family, the breakdown in the family started generations ago, and that has just continued through generation after generation, and, um, children are, are moved from home to home and they, their stability is not what it should be. And they, parents, um, I, I see a lot of kids. Here whose parents aren't even available, you know, I have some, some situations where parents are in jail or the father is in jail or, um, you know, I, I spoke to a dental hygiene class last week and I said, you know, most of you will go into private practice and you will probably never deal with DCFS, the department of children and family services. Okay. And, and I, I really think that is a major factor, you know, yes, we've got lots of problems with government.

We've got lots of problems with government programs and corruption and all of those things. But the breakdown of the family has had a devastating effect on people's ability to rise above their situation. Yeah. And, and, and. And a big part of the breakdown of the government is still just personal corruption. I mean, they, they, they could all be decent people tomorrow. There's nothing about government that says you have to be a lying, cheating, stealing hack. You know, I mean, I, I did not see that in the job description for a government people, but it seems to be. But so do you, do you think, um, do you think America is more concerned about the Fortune 500 and the 60,000? Uh, page tax code or the, um, the, the poor?

Well, I don't think the, the poor rank at the top levels. And I say that because, um, you know, as I mentioned earlier, I've dedicated my career to public health and I've seen many band-aids, but we've not really gotten to the point that we've fixed the problems that we're dealing with; the root of the problem, which is the breakdown of the family, and, um, providing, you know, providing help that, that helps the, the families move to a better place in life rather than keeping them where they are. And so I think that really those are the things that need to be addressed rather than continuing to put band-aids on things. And. That that will change something. So, um, this is, uh, Lily, what were you going to say?

I could tell your, your something's brewing in your head. I can see you thinking, I can see you thinking out loud. No, uh, I agree with Monica. Yeah. Uh, the family breakdown is the major issue, even here in Peru, um, you know, parents are absent. Uh, they have children to so many different women. And, and, and the mom ended up, you know, being the only support and then she has to go to work. So the kids are by themselves and then the kids get pregnant at the age of 12, 13, and that's just a cycle, a vicious cycle, a vicious cycle. Yeah. So do you know, do you know, do you know who told me about you? Who? Dr. Sidra Igbal, I-G-B-A-L, Sidra Igbal, DDSMA Jubilee Dental Group in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Do you guys know her? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. She's volunteered to join us. So we're trying to connect with her and have her come down. We haven't got a commitment yet, but we hope to do that. But she's a dentist that wants to volunteer time, come down here. And I think she's done some other trips like it, uh, with some other groups. So she's got some good stories to tell. I think with Doctors Without Borders or something like that, she did a trip or two, uh, as a dentist. So she's excited about doing that with us as well. That is awesome. Um, yeah, I again, if you're listening to this, um, I remember, I'll never forget, I had four boys and I took them on their first missionary dental trip and they were two, four, six, eight.

And I'll never forget how stumped I was because guess what? We went to a town, 5,000, um, Chiapin, India, no electricity, no running water, none of that stuff. And guess what? My two oldest boys asked me, 'Daddy.' No, they said, 'Daddy.' How come they don't have any trampolines? And I thought, 'Wow, you're so green' that he is like, well, did you notice they didn't have electricity and toilets either, but he was just dumbfounded. And then Greg, he told me he was so sweet. He was like six. And he felt so sorry. That they, they didn't have a trampoline and, uh, but, uh, my gosh, it was, uh, it was so cool. But what I can assure you is that, um, say your team is just, doesn't have a purpose, a mission, say what, whatever, uh, I, I take your team down there and my God, they just, they become different people.

One of the other things I noticed in my office was that, um, we, um, had this, uh, there's this place I hear called my sister's place. Because it's kind of code word. If you're hungry, your husband's beating you up. You know, you can say, 'I'm going to my sister's place,' but there's actually a place. And I, we worked with a lady for years and, and a lot of times domestic violence, they knocked their front teeth out. Well, you've got your husband, you've got your lover's quarrel, and your self-esteem is down. And now you're missing your front teeth. And I would tell her, you know, when they have a cosmetic emergency, you bring them down here and we'll, we'll, we'll fix them up.

And I would notice that they would bring someone down there and my team would fix up that person, but they would feel. Better. Better. Better. Better. Better. Better. Better. Better. Better. Why do you think some work gives humans more purpose and meaning than other work? You made a difference. You really made a difference in that person's life. Absolutely. Yeah. So, so. She's feeling a cavity. It's a making a difference in somebody's life that, you know, something, something tragic happened. so I'm telling you if you're if you're uh missing meaning per and it's also a great family vacation. I don't understand why you always want to take your kids on vacation to Disneyland Disney World

or go to Hawaii, I mean that's that's one end of the spectrum, but my boys, my boys to this day they thank me more for taking them to um the the underdeveloped countries become missionary dentistry um they i mean and whenever they say to me you know i'll never forget you know you know i learned blah blah blah blah and that was when I was in um it might have been a Cambodia or or Malaysia or Tanzania or Dad when we were at that orphanage in Tanzania, it made me realize blah blah blah blah and I i don't know I just I don't know. I'd rather take my kid to a missionary dental clinic for a week in Peru then to Disney World. I mean, what do you think Monica?

Well, I think there's great value in that. Most of our kids - we have four kids and um most of our kids had a mission trip experience. They did not go on any dental mission trips but they had mission trip experiences and, and that really helped them to understand that what they see as normal you know, just like your child in the trampoline not everybody has the things that they have, that they just take for granted, and that was a really important thing for us to to show our children that that we need to. Be caring about what is going on around us and and have open eyes and a sensitive spirit to people who are in need, and people that that we can help.

And you know of course that that was the reason I wanted to get involved in a dental ministry because that's my talent program building and care provision those are my areas of skill and talent, and God gave me those to use, and I could, I can use those in many ways. But one thing you know, my call in life is to use my talents to serve those who can't get the care they need on their own or by the normal means of society. Okay, so if they go there, I mean are they going to be doing uh dentistry uh in a tent i mean uh what what what type of uh what type of

facility are they are they walking down to and if they took their spouse and a couple of kids um what i mean are they talk about um what kind of dentistry they would be doing and what kind of facility and where would they be living and all that stuff well they would be doing um i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know dentists would be doing basic restorative care and oral surgery surgery services um we would be at this point in time we are partnering with the local dental clinics to use their facilities after hours or on weekends so that they have full access To what they need, um, not only a dental chair but a dental unit, suction, water, air all those kinds of things.

Um, we will be taking supplies with us and making sure that that they have the supplies that they need to provide the care. Dental hygienists will be going into schools and my plan is to take a team of dental hygienists for one week or 10 days and then the next week bring dentists in so the hygienists can go into the school, identify children who need care, and we can get those in to see the dentists and and maximize the time that the dentists are there. As far as bringing families, I do have a lady who's interested in going just Because she wants to be a support person on the dental team, she's not a dental assistant, she's not a dental hygienist, but she can help occupy children, she can entertain children, she can run to get children and bring them back and help people fill out forms and things like that.

Um, children that travel Law Mission has several ministries and one of the things they do is go out into the different communities that they serve and minister to the children of that community, and part of doing that is just going out and playing with those kids, you know, teaching them how to play soccer, teaching them how to play baseball, working with Them and just making connections and loving on those kids that so desperately need it, so you know there's more going on than just dentistry and um well mission has many many areas that they serve in the communities and so when they know that a group is coming down they do make sure that they have different things for people to do if they come with a dental group and they're for instance I last summer went with Williamsville Christian Church, I was the only dental person so the rest of the group worked with Law Mission and did other things while I worked with the local dental clinics

and went into the schools and my husband. And my daughter accompanied me, and helped out so we if they come, we will put them to work in one capacity or another. One other go ahead, go ahead! Well, Lily helped translate there was one other kid we had from Virginia down here was a translator for a while too; it was really exciting for him as well. And I just want to brag on Monica a bit in six days, she did 150 miles in three locations! So, one, one hygienist so I had help from the dentist that was she did help me a lot though, and it was a great, great six days. And Monica, you said that you're um, you have four children, and two of them are from Peru, yes?

So, so, so what, you had two kids then later adopted. to the first two or where did those two fit in the other four actually my two peruvians are right in the middle so i have a an older daughter and then my son and daughter from peru and then we had a surprise so you don't have to answer you can say none of your business go on but so how does how does a woman and um how does a woman like you has a child get two from peru then have a um a houdini how did that come about well actually we uh try my husband and i my oldest daughter is from a previous marriage and my husband adopted her and we tried to have more children and found out that we could not have any more children and um we decided that that Really, we wanted to adopt and then we wanted to adopt from Peru, so that was just a decision.

And um, home with our our son who was two and our daughter who was an infant. And we don't know what happened next, but we got water that is amazing. So when is your next? When is mission season you're down there eight months a year, you're down, you're up here for uh... when when is mission season for you guys? It's it's 24/7 down here, we are 12 months a year. We go back and forth uh, we're shifting back to two trips a year just for sanity's sake... but when we're not here, we have a wonderful family here, the Venezuelan family that that operate the Borregas, uh, they are, uh, here all the time, uh, we hope to add a few more staff people, uh, but, uh, the place is definitely functional and operational even when we're not down here so, uh, it's a 12-month mission project.

Wow! And, and, so when is the um let's, um, so when is the next one? The next dental trip? Yeah, I'm taking a group of hygienists around June 18th that kind of depends on the ticket prices but June 18th is our target date and they will stay in country until about June 28th. And the dentists who plan to bring down June 24th staying till July 3rd or 4th. And what's the um, what's the other trip? Most of my friends that Did missionary dentistry down there, uh, they wanted to, uh, the the Inca civilization um oh Machu Picchu you're talking about yeah Machu Picchu yeah yeah you you can you can do that as a side trip it's uh you know budget in another $500 bucks and you can fly up to Cusco from Lima and uh do do the whole um the whole package maybe even from Pisco from

from there but it's uh it's a it's a it's another little it's a country trip within the country so but it's uh you go to Cusco and you need to spend one night because of the elevation resting in your hotel and then you take a train and uh you spend the day up there or more if you want. to spend the night come back the same day to cusco see some more things to cusco and come back but that that's a side trip that a lot of people like to do because they they're afraid when they get back and they say they went to peru the first question and there's going to be oh did you see machu picchu and how far are you from from um

onikagu the the tallest mountain it's one of the seven summits you got some statistics there yeah you're like looking at wikipedia or something what no i did i i climbed the tallest one in africa which is kilimanjaro which is right in the middle so there's seven continents killies in the middle at 19 And then I climbed the smallest one, the shortest one, in uh Australia because being an old, short, fat, bald guy, I wanted to hurry up and knock out the smallest one. And, but going forward from Killie, the next tallest is uh Alaska, uh then the next tallest is uh a conga in uh Chile isn't it? And then the highest is um the highest is um Mount Everest.

But I know a Dennis who's been on this show um three times; he's gone to Chile and uh to climb that and he's still coming back but a lot of times they try to work out like when I climbed Killie, uh we went to an orphanage at the bottom for a week and that was our real reason to go, but it made it um but. it made it nice that when we were done we could go climb killie and a lot of these there's a lot of uh dentists that are into the um they um the seven highest peak the the seven summits they call it so how far are you from a conga now is that what's the biggest city near that i'm not sure where that is it's a near uh in the north or north um do you know monica it's uh it's a mountain uh in

doza province argentina yeah that's far okay that's far south of us well actually actually they'll just take they'll just take a month off because um that's that's argentina that's not the country right right right but but you could go down there and They could, um, you could do the trip and they could knock out, um, they could knock out, um, the Aconcagua, the uh second-highest behind, um, uh, Mount Everest. But to climb the highest in Antarctica actually leaves from Argentina because Argentina is the closest to Antarctica and they fly down there on some planes. And that's not too uh, you want to know the weirdest thing about that trip: you have to go with the guide because when you sleep in your sleeping bag, your humidity and sweat freezes to a block of ice, and you could never get out of it.

So someone has to not be in your sleeping bag to to crunch on you to break all the ice so. That you can get out of your sleeping bag, this is a Jeffrey Knight from Australia, he's been down there through so I'm thinking Jeffrey Knight might want to go down there too um um, but anyway um, so any other um, any other words of wisdom oh oh one last thing I I gotta um do this on um on dental town um, this is under humanitarian dentistry and humanitarian dentistry, we we separated this into uh two parts because there's charitable dentistry uh for humanity not religious based and there's people who want to do religious base and they seem to be too um it's kind of like two railroad tracks, they're going to the same place but one wants To be charitable, one wants to be a missionary.

Um, yours is published under 'missionary' what are your thoughts about how do you separate humanitarian dentistry or public health uh with uh charitable dentistry, missionary dentistry? How do you separate humanitarian dentistry? How do you wrap your minds around those those terminologies for Monica, or for us either one, Monica when you work in public health that's kind of a form of humanitarian dentistry, charitable dentistry. Um, you guys are obviously on a missionary dentistry all of you because because it's not it's 50 shades of gray isn't it? Isn't it from charitable? To missionary, 50 shades of humanitarian! I have a friend, I used to work with when I was in the industry. He's young, he's younger than me, he's like my son's age, but he loves to argue – uh, he loves to argue politics, he loves to argue religion, uh, all the time.

He's on Facebook and my kids always say, 'Why do you keep talking to him?' But he loves to just argue, but whatever I say, he's good; if I say left, he says right; if I say green, he says blue. So it's just just one of those friends you know, we all have them. But we have a house down here that we were building – uh, we're fixing a kitchen and a bathroom and giving her running water and helping. This widow, uh, and he put it on his birthday page on Facebook and asked, 'Said everybody what I want for my birthday is to help make that house.' From my i call him my atheist friend who does not like to support us for religious purposes or anything like that.

He saw this as a real need and he raised thirty-five hundred dollars for that house and it cost us like 42 so it was unbelievable, so I mean we take it any way we can get, so we it goes to a good cause and I think that's what we both see whether you're not into religious, but you definitely see the both [cause] uh and that that's the main thing. It's humanitarian in either case. And Monica, how do you, how do you wrap your amazing mind between public health, charitable, humanitarian, missionary? How does that spectrum look to your amazing mind? Well I agree with William, people have different driving forces. For me, I believe that God called me into public health dentistry um, that and and I feel like my work in the United States is I'm where I am working on a mission field um.

I i it is my job but I do it because I care and and really have a heart for the people that I'm serving and uh and a passion for them and I want to demonstrate the love of Christ as I do my job um. Does that mean I go into schools and and scream you? Know Jesus from the rooftops, no they would throw me out but um that's that's the call on my life and the same thing for going to Peru, I believe that the Lord has called me to do that and He has equipped me with my skills and talents to be able to to do something like this um but I you know some of the people who are considering going on the the mission trip with me are going for strictly humanitarian reasons um but I you know some of the people who are considering going on the the mission trip with me are going for strictly humanitarian reasons

and you know it it does come to the same result basically, I mean I am working with the mission And the mission is is putting forth that, that they are there as a ministry to serve these communities; um people, people go and and don't go for that specific reason, but they are helping the communities and they're providing care, and they're you know, they do it for different reasons, but in the end, we are all helping the people of the community and we all, we are serving them in a way that they won't be served if if we don't stand up and do something. Well, William, you're kind of that arguing guy; I mean, I said tomato and you instantly said potato, so see, he was just he was just trying to pick a fight, okay?

Well, on behalf of MLK. Martin Luther King Junior Day, who is stands on the shoulders of Martin Luther the original, day who goes back to um, um, who was the other one with the um, the um, oh my gosh, uh, what name I think the Saint Vincent de Paul, uh, another from the 1500s where we have dentists in here that volunteer for Saint Vincent Paul, I mean it's all it's all amazing. Um, thank you so much to William Silverthorne and his better half Lily, uh, thank you Monica, uh, from Paris Peru from poverty from Paris to Peru, uh, it was just a beautiful podcast and um, I really if you're listening as you know

who you are don't do another vacation don't do another cruise and here's another thing why are you all stressed out because you spend more than you make uh dentists always have they have too big a house they eat out too many meals i mean you look at a dentist you say well here's what all the median americans do here's size of their house there's bigger well here's the average car there's more expensive here's the average vacay they they can't even do anything at the median mode mean one thing so you know what you ought to do the next time your family wants to take a fifty thousand dollar vacation to hawaii for two weeks and do the cruise and all that kind of stuff and then and then you'll wonder why Your kids don't have values, or whatever.

You know, you need to do go do some charity dentistry, a humanitarian dentistry. I don't care if it's charity dentistry, or if it's a charity dentistry, or if it's a - I don't care. If it's missionary dentistry, uh, I love Mother Teresa's quote on that. She said, 'Humanitarian is a charity.' She goes and whatever, whatever, and she goes... well, all that's between me and God, and has nothing to do with you. Anyway, isn't that interesting? Yeah, she's like, 'This is between me and God,' and you're not part of that. Um, so uh, um, thank you for all that you do, and I hope that um this attracts somebody to come. Uh, join you in Peru and I want to join you in Peru someday, uh, I just don't know if uh, Peruvians uh, make beer, do they make beer?

Oh yeah, oh yeah! All right then, we solve that problem, that was the major logistical problem. Yeah, I don't get a lot of beer at the mission, so I want you to come down so I can go have one all right, we'll do it. I definitely want to go do it. My brother Paul just uh um climbed that um uh in Peru but uh okay. Thank you for all that you guys do and thank you for watching and I'll see you next time bye! Thank you for taking an hour out of your life to talk to my homies today on MLK Day, it was just fantastic all right have a great day.