full clearance.

Saturday, Jared and I had the privilege of being involved in some community service on the Highbury side of town.

Highbury has some of the best bakeries and fish and chips shops but is also home to 'The Mongrel Mob' as well as being a low income part of town.

Jared's surgery has a bus that you have heard me mention before as he takes it to Foxton on Tuesdays. As often as they can, they take the bus to Highbury and set up a free dental clinic.

This Saturday, it was our turn to be the dentist and the assistant.

NERVOUS.

The only reason I was nervous really is because I didn't know how to use any of the equipment on the bus. I knew that we would need the sterilizer to be going constantly and I didn't even know how to turn it on. :) Jared's boss and his wife had worked the morning shift and we were to take the afternoon.

When we arrived around 12:30, we met Pearl. She is a Maori lady from the Highbury community that sits as the receptionist. The reception area is a small room with a kitchen and a bathroom. On Friday nights, it is where a group of Maori ladies get together to weave korowai cloaks. The korowai are an ancient tradition of the Maori and you are honored to get one. There are many feathers of indigenous birds that are woven into the cloak. When dignitaries come to New Zealand, they are given one.

             This is the one I gave Prince William when he came to dinner last week. haha.

Pearl welcomed us with open arms and made us feel instantly at home. We secured all of our valuables (keeping my wedding rings and cell phone on my person at all times) and headed to the bus. The last patient of the morning wasn't finished yet so I hopped on the bus to see where, how and when everything was done.

This photo was taken after the day was done but it will give you and idea of how the bus is set up. Jared sits on the stool that you can see and I sit on the stool behind the chair and to the right.

An assistant that usually works with Jared was on standby so that I could observe her in the first few cases. She had to leave by 2, so I knew I would have to take it by myself after a few rounds.

Luckily for me, the hygienist that I had worked with in the previous week was also on the bus. She, along with Jared, were the ones who started it and keep it going. She was telling me about the patients of the day so far. One woman had come in with a face that was absolutely swollen. She had been to the hospital and taken antibiotics three times with no change. Another lady, Pearl's daughter, had been in prison and just gotten out. She required 8 fillings as her teeth in the front were in pretty bad shape.

The first patient we got in was a filling. She had been having a lot of pain in her tooth and it had a hole in it. It wasn't bad enough that it needed to come out though.

The second patient was a large Maori gent covered in tattoos. He came in saying that his back teeth were hurting and once Jared looked and took an xray, there was no doubt that they would have to come out. Jared numbed him up and sent him back to the waiting room. When he came back (after we had put another patient through), Jared began the process of extraction. This guys mouth was so inflamed that the local wouldn't cover the pain. I got extremely queasy because of the amount of blood and pain that this guy was in. Seeing that the local wasn't going to do it, Jared decided that he wasn't going to do anything until the inflammation went down. Jared prescribed him some antibiotics and told him to get in at Carpenter's under a WINZ quote. WINZ stands for Work Income New Zealand.We found out later that the reason his mouth was so inflamed is because he had tried to take the teeth out by himself using pliers.

My first case to be the assistant was the patient in between the two above cases. She was a nice Maori lady in her 40s. When she came in, I noticed that she didn't really open her mouth wide to talk. As soon as she got into the chair, I found out why. She opened so that Jared could assess the situation. Her upper jaw was a mass of decay. She had two full teeth left in the front that were eaten through. The rest of her teeth were broken or simply stumps of root. Jared offered her full clearance. This means that he was going to take all of her teeth out on the top. She would be able to get a denture through WINZ but she could not continue in this condition. She agreed and the process began.

Remember when I got queasy because of the first guy? Well this one was a doozy. I knew that I wasn't the one in the chair and they didn't need a nurse passing out on them so I sat strongly and held my breath behind my mask. I just kept saying to myself, 'Why do all these people drink so much red kool-aid?' and 'oh well...it's just red kool-aid'. Anything to keep myself the assistant instead of the patient.

In the end, Jared took out twelve...teeth...I guess you could call them that. It was more like two teeth and ten roots. She had local and didn't even wince when it was being done. She had been in pain for some time and you could see the relief on her face to have them out..

One of my favorite patients of the day was a lady named Janine. Janine was pregnant and was absolutely terrified of the dentist. Because of that fear, she had avoided the dentist for a long time but couldn't wait any longer. When she told us about her tooth pain, Jared discovered a large hole in one of her molars. He told her it would have to come out. She freaked a bit.

She said that she had hyperventilated at the dentist once before and whoever it was told her that they would not work on her. She thought maybe she would go to the hospital and get treatment with good drugs instead of letting Jared take it out.

This was a new experience for me as well to see Jared working with the public. To see these people coming in terrible pain and he assures them that they are going to be okay. Jared told her that if she went to the hospital, she wouldn't receive anything but antibiotics and that wouldn't help her situation.

She decided to let him use local and take it out. When she got the local injection. she said she didn't even feel the needle (cringe at the thought). She went out into the waiting room and came in later on. She ended up being our last patient of the day. She came in more nervous than before and I assured her that I would hold her hand if she needed me to. I told her that I was proud of her for getting this far and if any dentist would take care of her, it would be my husband.

(I also had to let her know that he was my husband and that he didn't call all of his assistants 'babe' :)

Jared got the tooth out without her feeling a thing. She was so proud that she didn't have that decay in her mouth anymore and that she had been so strong. What this picture doesn't show is the ginormous hole in the other side.

The best part of the day was as we were cleaning up. These patients and their families come by the bus door and say 'Thank You!' and 'Aren't you proud of me?' and 'We love you!'

It truly was an awesome experience and I can't wait to do it again.