Smiles and healthy teeth in Tonga

When you don’t have many resources such as money or a government social safety net, you learn to rely on the Lord for basics such as health care.
I have learned that Tongans pray with sincerity, frankness, and earnestness and with an unassuming but confident expectation that the Lord hears them and will provide because of their unwavering faith.
Locals always express gratitude: but their demeanor seems to express, “Well of course you are here, we prayed that you would come because we need a dentist.”
So having a senior missionary Dental Team in Tonga is the answer to many prayers offered by a people that have limited options.
Locals probably don’t realize how many “coincidences” had to align perfectly to get a dental team to Tonga.
But Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a 20th Century architect, said, “God is in the details.” And I have waited 40 years to use that factoid from an architecture class I took in college.
But God does attend to details and faster than I can say, “Ofa atu Nuku’alofa” what others might call “coincidences” I now call miracles or “tender mercies”.
When I was in Washington DC, I knew people - that knew people.
Sure, I wasn’t important enough to have a “fixer” like Mr. Cohen, but I usually “knew a guy” that could get things done.
Boy Howdy! Let me tell you my current boss can really get things done, he is a fixer for sure, and he doesn’t just know a guy, I think he knows everyone.
You can see from the picture that our boss likes to oversee His work pretty closely. He is the best boss I have ever worked for, but call me paranoid… I feel like He is watching me all the time.
So our dental team starts with two local volunteers. They speak three languages and help schedule and explain to patients that when the dentist says, “This is only going to hurt for a minute”, he doesn’t mean it!
Our dental hygienist is the most decorated woman golfer in Idaho and has won the Senior Amateur so many times they named the event after her. Sometimes she has to use her nine iron to chip 15 years of plaque off neglected teeth, she also spends a great deal of time educating the youth about dental hygiene.
The dental assistant, Sister Goodman, is really the spark that started this story because when Elder Goodman asked, “Where would you like to go on our honeymoon?” She replied, “I wanna go on a mission.”
Before the newlyweds could say “I do” they were on a mission turning a dilapidated old dentist office located on the campus of Liahona High School in Tonga into a dilapidated old WORKING dentist office.
The dentist is Doctor Goodman; and he is truly a “good man”. He is 72 years young and has been married to Sister Goodman for a year.
Why would anyone decide to come to Tonga as a volunteer dentist for their honeymoon? Perhaps they mixed up their pills again or it was that “uncontrolled exuberance” that seniors sometimes get.
Or they were scrolling on their phones and a popup ad promised, “exotic lands, delightful food, beaches, learning languages, and doing meaningful good things that will provide a sense of purpose to your otherwise meaningless life.”
Seniors are so gullable for click-bait and phishing schemes. Why their kids ever let them connect to the internet is beyond me. I mean come on, last time we Facetimed my mother-in-law I got to talk to a closeup of her ear for 15 minutes.
The dentist’s first name is Pierce, just like Pierce Brosnon; the similarities end there. Although, I think he starred in Mama Mia in high school.
Dr. Goodman is not tall, not dark, but Sister Goodman assures me he is quite handsome …think Bilbo Baggins with loupes and a beautiful tenor voice.
Here in Tonga, kids have never had their teeth cleaned and likely only been to a dentist to extract a tooth.
Often you will notice prominent teeth missing from the smiles of Tongans because their only option is extraction or pain.
Nearly 35 percent of people older than five years have untreated dental problems. Looking at kids from ages 1 to 9, about 50 percent have untreated dental problems.
Due to the volcano, tsunami, cyclone, and COVID, the dentist office has not been functioning for the last four years. Setting up a modern working office is not an easy thing to do in a Third World country with limited access to everything.
But, as you can see in the picture the Lord is overseeing the work down here. With some duct tape and bailing wire Doctor Goodman has had to refurbish, rebuild, restore, recondition, repair, repurpose, reuse, and resurrect old used donated equipment into something that would enable him to pull a tooth or fix a cavity.
He sees about 20 patients a day; mostly students and young missionaries. The dental hygienist schedules 90 minutes for a cleaning because it takes that long. In America it would be 30 minutes.
On one scavenger hunt for used dental equipment, Brother Hamma and I went with our dentist to a warehouse that would have been condemned by health officials in the US. We found inside a 4’x8’ wooden crate a very used dental chair.
My job was to kill cockroaches and spiders while they rummaged through the crate to find the bits and pieces they would need to put together a functioning dental chair.
Fast forward a few months, add several miracles, six new dental chairs, some support from the Church for supplies and they are starting to make a dent into the overwhelming need for dental care.
They start at 7:30 a.m. and have people still hoping to see the dentist when they lock the door at 6 p.m.
Imagine your small child having a tooth ache for a month and there is no relief. Multiply that experience by hundreds and you start to see the need here in Tonga. It is hard to overstate the relief that Elder Goodman and the dental team are providing here in Tonga.
It is a humbling experience to hear someone say, “You are an answer to our prayers.” But after all, “God is in the details” and the dental team is at the right place at the right time doing meaningful things, at least until Elder Goodman gets a call from the studios for “Mamma Mia-The Assisted Living Years”.