This week, Michelle and Andrew are coming at you with another set of TIPs on dental mission trips. Michelle and Andrew started their friendship because of their love of dental mission trips. They have been on a few and each has had different experiences. Here are some ways they have made their trips successful!
Let us know your feedback!
Don’t forget to follow up on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
We would love for you to rate and review our podcast and DON’T FORGET to hit that subscribe button.
Visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter ataleoftwohygiensts.com
More TIPisodes: https://ataleoftwohygienists.com/tipisodes/
More info from AToTH on Dental Mission Trips: https://ataleoftwohygienists.com/mission-trips/
This TIPisode has been transcribed for your viewing pleasure:
Michelle Strange: A Tale of Two Hygienists presents this week’s TIPisode: Quick and easy tips to keep you up to date and presented by the experts in the profession. Now, get ready for your unofficial TIPisode.
So, y’all, we’re back with a TIPisode from me and Andrew. Yay!
Andrew Johnston: Hooray!
Michelle Strange: So we’re going to talk about, this time, getting ready for a mission trip.
Andrew Johnston: Yeah.
Michelle Strange: So get into it.
Andrew Johnston: Hi, everyone. We want to give some tips on things that you need to do to get ready for a mission trip.
Now, Michelle — Okay. But for realsies though. Michelle and I have gone on multiple mission trips, and every one is a little bit different. So, if you have questions or thoughts, feel free to email us. We’d be more than happy to kind of help you specifically for the type of mission that you’re going on because there are going to be mission trips like I’ve done in the past that were CE related, and it was not high-end, but it was kind of everything was taken care of for you. You just showed up. You did the thing. You wore scrubs. Not a lot that you had to do.
But then there’s other ones where you’re like, “Oh, my goodness. I have to bring all of the supplies and all of the things, and there’s supplies lists, and –” that’s Michelle pointing to herself on this —
Michelle Strange: — And those are the ones that I do. [Laughing].
Andrew Johnston: — on this audio podcast that people can’t see you pointing to yourself, but that’s okay.
Michelle Strange: No. Well, I didn’t want to interrupt you. But, yes, those are the ones that I do mostly because I am joining a medical trip and bringing the dental portion, and it just requires a little bit more work on my part. I’m also going into countries that may or may not want us there. [Laughing].
Andrew Johnston: Right. Right. For sure.
Michelle Strange: So there’s even things that I have to do ahead of time to like send in my serial numbers of any equipment. There’s been a few times where I’ve sat in customs fighting for the equipment and trying to hustle my way to get like a triturator through telling them my heart — it was my heart medicine. [Laughing].
Andrew Johnston: So, if I might give one of the first tips that we do for this. That is a situation that happens regularly. And this is not always going to help for every situation, but one of the things that we did for that situation was we were headed down to Guatemala, and that is a thing that either you get taxed on for some reason or you have to bribe the officials or whatever.
Michelle Strange: Yeah. Bribe somebody.
Andrew Johnston: So, what we end up doing as an organization — well, actually it was –the organizers did that — is they sent out ahead of time a letter from the Lions Club who was helping — like the Lions Club International [sic] who was helping sponsor the trips and would book like translators and things like that. Then they also had a letter from the local government official whether it was like a mayor-type person, and they sent those to all of the volunteers ahead of time that said, in Spanish, “Please do not give these guys a bad time and do not steal their things and do not do these –” It is not always going to be the case, but you put it right on top of your luggage that gets checked, and if they see that, then a lot of times they’ll just let you go through, especially if you’re traveling in a group.
But that’s also the second tip though is traveling in a group like that is a huge red flag.
Michelle Strange: It’s a red flag. [Laughing].
Andrew Johnston: You are more likely to get stopped, especially if you have all of your stuff.
Michelle Strange: Yeah. So, the first time that I went on one, we wore t-shirts to kind of, like, keep up with each other because we were all coming through from other states and whatever, trying to find each other when we got to our airport before we left for the big “hop across the ocean” kind of thing. And we just don’t do that anymore. Now we walk through. We barely make eye contact. [Laughing]. We just kind of get through it. And, yeah. That’s it for — and then we also, especially when we go — actually we’ve done it on a few of them. We write things like “praise Jesus” [laughing] —
Andrew Johnston: — Yes!
Michelle Strange: — and stuff on our stuff because people are less likely to steal if they are religious in any way, even though they’re stealing. They are less likely to do that because they think they’re going to go to hell.
So, I don’t know. There’s some tricks like that that you can do. [Laughing].
Andrew Johnston: You just get a big ol’ Jesus face sticker, and you put it right on the outside of all your stuff, and they are not going to do that.
Michelle Strange: Put it on the top of the box so they have to cut through Jesus’s face.
Andrew Johnston: And they will not cut Jesus’s face, probably.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
Andrew Johnston: Lot less likely. You put it on all the tape areas where they can’t see it. Oh, my gosh.
Michelle Strange: Yep.
Andrew Johnston: Yeah.
Michelle Strange: The other tip that I have is that you need very little.
Andrew Johnston: Yes.
Michelle Strange: And a lot of places — well, at least all of the places I have gone — and you and I can really only speak from our own experience, and everyone’s trips are so different, but I have never needed a hair dryer. I have never needed a straightening iron. I wear — I do end up washing my clothes there using the facility. Sometimes I handwash it for like $2 a piece or something, so I bring some money. And I feel like it’s also giving them work and, you know, trying to support the economy if I can.
And I will bring three pairs of scrubs, and on Wednesday, I’ll wash Monday and Tuesday’s so I have it for Thursday and Friday or whatever that works for you guys.
I just — I bring very, very little. No makeup. Like, its you’re roughing it in some cases. I say that, but I’ve also been so impressed with the accommodations. I personally have not had anything super cra — I mean, I have — there’s been bathrooms and holes in the ground. Like, sometimes they’re pretty rough. But my girlfriend KP is in South Sudan doing mission work with Doctors Without Borders, and she hasn’t had a hot shower in weeks. So I feel like some are good, some are bad, but know that you can deal with very little on these trips.
Andrew Johnston: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
No. Yeah. For sure. I mean, and I would concur. It is nice to be able to bring some little things like baby wipes and something that’s not going to take up a lot of things to just get that pamper. I was just watching a travel video actually just the other day, and he’s like, “Well, you know, after 24 hours of traveling, just, like, wipe my face real quick just to make it feel clean, and it just kind of recharges you real quick.”
So something small is usually not that big of a deal. I have overpacked and I have underpacked on mission trips before, and I find that when I underpack, I still don’t really seem to have a problem. So, yeah. Definitely that’s a great tip to go little.
Michelle Strange: Yeah.
I also would say don’t skip on your shoes. I don’t know about you, Andrew, but I stood most of my mission trips. Occasionally I’ve had a stool or something, but for the most part, I’m standing up. So I wear compression socks, and I drink a ton of water. I’ve gotten in trouble where I’ve dehydrated myself on a few of these trips, so make sure you are drinking a lot of water, compression socks, and good shoes because I have brought shoes that I was like, “Eh, you know, if I left them there, I wouldn’t care,” kind of thing, and my feet and knees were killing me by the end of it. So don’t — you know, like, the soles are about to fall out. Whatever. You leave them. It’s fine. Whatever your thought process is on that, don’t do that. Bring good stuff.
Andrew Johnston: Right. And there’s actually been mission trips that I’ve been with who said please don’t do that because then you’re just leaving stuff in the country that someone else has to deal with, and that’s just not a really cool practice.
Michelle Strange: So true.
Andrew Johnston: And, I mean, you think, “Oh, well, these poor people are going to love to have this used pair of shoes.” But they really don’t, and it’s not helpful.
Michelle Strange: They don’t.
Andrew Johnston: So please don’t have that mindset. And, yes, great shoes.
In the Dominican Republic with Somos Amigos who we’ve gone — well, we’ve sponsored them before, it’s rocky, hiking, mountainous terrain to get to and from the clinic every day, and so that’s — yeah. You want that. Plus I stand anyways during all day. Like, my ten-hour shift, it’s mostly standing. So that part didn’t bother me. But, yeah. Good shoes.
I would also like to say before you go, research the crap out of the organization you’re going with.
Michelle Strange: Ugh. Good point. Good point. Because some are good and some are not and some are party — I’ve even heard of these, like, party organizations that are, like, just jamming out the whole time. So really you got to find what’s going to work for you.
For me personally, it’s sustainability in the country, going where I’m not just going to leave that person. There’s a way for them to be followed, a way for them to seek care afterwards. So, if it is an extraction, if something were to go wrong a week later, we’re gone. Like, where do they go after that? If it’s — you know, some pretty crazy decay or something — something for them to follow up. And that’s really — I know it’s important to you as well. It’s important to me. And I would have a really hard time to go with a group that doesn’t have some sustainable clinic there that we could refer back to.
Andrew Johnston: Yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. That’s exactly what I was kind of angling at is sustainability if at all possible.
I really like the medical-dental integration missions as well because I feel like how many times, Michelle, have you been on a trip that you’re having these conversations with these medical professionals and they’re very wowed by how much the hygiene community really knows and what we can really do for people. And so they’ll end up referring people back to us that they saw on the medical side that maybe wouldn’t have been able to get dental care any other way.
Michelle Strange: Yeah.
Andrew Johnston: And we’ve had it, too, where they’ve actually escorted a patient over and been like, “Look. This person needs to see somebody,” because it’s that kind of a situation where otherwise they’d have to go back in the end of the line and maybe get seen, maybe not get seen, maybe have some sort of infection that doesn’t ever resolve, so.
Michelle Strange: Or something super benign like tori. They’re like, “Oh, my God. I saw something in their mouth. I think it’s a tumor.”
Andrew Johnston: [Laughing].
Michelle Strange: And I’m like, “Oh, let me teach you a thing about the oral cavity.” So that’s been fun too.
I would love just to finish out, with my tips at least, about community service and volunteering even in your area. I’m not trying to talk down on these one-time-a-year situations where people have to line up and get their access to care. In South Carolina, we call them Dental Access Days. I think some of them are called MOM. I’m not really sure what all the acronyms are. And those are fine. Those are great. Like, they serve their purpose. But, if you’re feeling led or — you know, in your heart to serve and give back with your skills as a dental professional, I would highly encourage you to look for a place where there — this person — these people have a dental home to go back to.
And I say that, for instance, with my particular clinic that I volunteer at. They have a place to go, so it’s not just about getting them out of pain doing that one-time service. It’s about finding a home where they can really establish good oral health. And, if they are in pain, it’s not that they’re suffering until the next dental day. You know, they have somewhere to go, but it is free because we are volunteering.
So, if you’re really led to that, I would just really encourage you — because think about it, guys. If we all did this, we would probably only have to serve one time a year, if that. If that. You know, like, you’re already serving one time a year, so maybe you take a day off, and you serve on a Monday. Or your office sends a temp there or something on behalf of your practice.
I really think that there’s a way —
Andrew Johnston: — That’s a cool — that’s cool. Yeah.
Michelle Strange: — that you could even make this a marketing campaign. Like, “We appreciate our community, we really believe in access to care, and so we are going to send our lovely temp Michelle over to, you know, whatever the clinic is.” I think that there’s ways that you can make it happen and show your community that you do care about them and you believe in good oral health for everyone.
Andrew Johnston: Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s good. I think that’s a good way to end the episode.
So, as this episode’s dropping, I think I’m in the Philippines, or maybe going or —
Michelle Strange: — Coming back maybe? Yeah.
Andrew Johnston: — coming back. I’m not really sure when this is going to air.
The purpose of that is to establish a dental mission in the country, and it’s going to be something that’s going to be a little bit different, a little bit unique. I am — I’ll be coming back to you guys, so tune in every week. I will have some questions for you kind of sprinkled throughout of how I’m going to create this particular dental mission, if you guys wanted to go, and who is willing to volunteer and do all of that.
But my last tip is while we do a lot of international things, like Michelle was just saying, you don’t have to go big to help.
Michelle Strange: Nope.
Andrew Johnston: So stay local if you ca — if that’s all you can do, stay local.
But anyways. So yeah. Thanks for listening to all these little tips.
Michelle Strange: Yeah.
Andrew Johnston: We have a lot more. I’m sure this will be a recurring theme for us now.
Michelle Strange: [Laughing].
All right, guys. Well, enjoy this TIPisode. Enjoy all the other ones. Don’t forget to go and do any of the ones that have giveaways like Crown Seating or MouthWatch, and we’ll talk with you next week.
Andrew Johnston: Bye, everyone.
Michelle Strange: Bye, y’all.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s TIPisode. Be sure to reach out to our guest experts and let them know how helpful their tips were. Follow A Tale of Two Hygienists on Facebook, Instagram, and head over to ataleoftwohygienists.com and subscribe to our newsletter. You can also email us at ataleoftwohygienists@gmail.com, and keep listening for more awesome content from your unofficial dental hygiene podcast.
