Picture: My darling Natasha showing off her teeth in 2001.


I realized that I left something out in Dental Health with PI Kids blog. The article below reminded me.


I told a story about a Ukrainian adopted child who was terrified of the dentist. She was scared because she was forced (while living in her Ukrainian orphanage) to watch a tooth being pulled out of another child's mouth. This was a "lesson". "See what happens to children who don't brush their teeth."


The tooth was just pulled out of the child's mouth. She had no pain medication. Can you even image the pain and screaming?


My darling daughter Natasha had to have 2 baby teeth pulled this week. She is 9 years old and her jaw doesn't have room for the adult teeth (coming in) and the baby teeth. To prevent her adult teeth from growing in an strange angle, the baby teeth had to go.


Natasha had pain medication on board. She just felt the pressure but no pain. I could barely stand there while the dentist pulled these teeth. But my baby needed me to hold her hand.


Emotionally Natasha handled the experience better then I did. She was thrilled to have 2 teeth for the Tooth Fairy. She was sure the Tooth Fairy would give her $10 per tooth. They were very special teeth after all.

When a St. Paul surgeon asked Shoreview dentist George Posavad to assess dental needs in Ukraine in 1993, he and his wife readily agreed. What's two weeks?

But that single fact-finding trip has turned into 21 treks, and this year George Posavad, 68, received the Minnesota Dental Association's humanitarian award for more than a decade of volunteer work in Ukraine, most of it helping orphans.

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Their original team of two has grown into two dozen area dentists, hygienists, dental assistants, teachers, a physician, nurses and a clown, who join them each April for 12 days of dentistry and health lessons, inspired by sheer need.

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Posavad found ancient equipment [in Ukraine] — slow-speed drills and bits dull enough to be nearly useless — and offices without running water. Toothbrushes are hard to come by. To deaden a tooth, dentists used arsenic paste, seen here only in medical museums.

"I was shocked by the state of dental care," he said. "Being naive, I thought everyone took all the decay out of a tooth before filling it."

Not in the Ukraine, where by practice and due to time constraints, fillings are shallow and put on top of remaining decay. Root canals are rudimentary affairs that rarely save the tooth. Extractions rule the day, and abscesses are common.

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Few Ukrainian orphans ever see a dentist, Posavad said. Those who do are terrified, since dentists there don't use Novocain. The clown comes in handy, winning the hearts of frightened children who soon discover that dentistry with anesthetic is less traumatic than they feared.

He recalled one boy who refused to let a dentist go near him, despite several abscesses. Posavad was unable to treat him until the following year, when infection had worked through the boy's cheek, leaving permanent scars.


From: Group helps orphans smile — brighter

P.S. The Tooth Fairy paid $7.50 per tooth. Natasha wrote a beautiful letter to the Tooth Fairy explaining why these were valuable teeth.