Dentist provides care in Honduras

For Dr. Will Robinson of Paintbrush Dental, providing care for people's teeth in Thermopolis is just part of his practice.

Under the Mission of Mercy, he explained, a team of physicians and dentists go to different areas in Honduras - usually in a three- to five-year span before they begin repeating areas - doing medical missions "all in the name of Christ." His most recent trip was March 10-20.

The missions provide people with medical care where they're at, Robinson said, whereas they might have to travel a couple hundred miles to the nearest city.

"Usually when we go, we spend about six or seven days just bouncing around to the different villages. Where we went in Honduras is called the Mosquito Coast, just north of Nicaragua and right on the Gulf Coast. We bounced around to three different villages."

Mistruck was the first village, Tansing was the second and Carata was the third. Four dentists took the journey this time, Robinson said, and they saw 282 patients and extracted 677 teeth.

Physicians saw around 1,400-1,500 patients, providing deworming medications, blood pressure medicine, pain medication, antibiotics and other medicine. "We basically bring a whole pharmacy with us out there," Robinson said.

Dr. Robinson has made two trips to Honduras, but he has gone on at least a dozen mission trips to provide dental care, including Mexico, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam.

At 17, Robinson did his first mission trip - not a dental one obviously - travelling to Hong Kong to work on rebuilding a drug rehabilitation center. "I've been involved in it for a long time. God's given me skills to be able to serve other people and I just love doing it."

Robinson became associated with Mission of Mercy because the parents of Dr. Leif Polson, his partner at Paintbrush, have been doing the program for about 40 years.

"There's always way more than we can do while we're there," Robinson said, "but at least we hope to do a little dent and promote the Gospel as well while we're there."