Grandpa/Grandson Serve Together

GRANDPA DENTIST and GRANDSON ASSISTANT in TONGA
–Ralph Larsen

We had a wonderful experience giving dental service in Tonga at the Deseret International Foundation dental clinic from May 12 to June 9, 2015.  My grandson, Jake Colvin, went with me and became my best dental assistant.  He wants to become a dentist and was very willing to learn.

Working as a team with Dr. Bruce Beckstrand and his wife Debi Beckstrand we accomplished a lot of dental service in the month including root canal fillings, operative dentistry and surgery.  Dr. Gordon J. Christensen taught me many new techniques and materials in his course, Faster, Easier, Higher Quality, Cost Effective Dentistry which were very helpful in Tonga.

One product we used on every cavity preparation before restoration was glutaraldehyde/HEMA provided to us by Danville Materials LLC as MicroPrimeG.  It does three things:  1) kills the bacteria in the cavity prep.  2) plugs the dentinal tubules.  3) improves the bond of glassionomer or composite to dentin.  The result was little or no postoperative sensitivity even in very deep restorations.  My question is why didn’t we start using this material 30 years ago.  It just makes so much sense.

The local anesthesia provided by Septodont worked very well and the patients did not complain about pain even with the most extensive surgeries.

We thank Septodont, Danville and all the Dental Supply Companies who donated supplies and materials.  We thank the LDS Academy of Dentists and the LDS Church for making this experience possible.  We thank Dr. Wayne R. Chisholm for starting this dental clinic in Tonga.

Dr. Ralph T. Larsen