#SmileSanSalvador – Day 1 – June 11, 2016

( Story by Hannah Reed and Photography by Ellie Falcao) As I sit here overlooking the fields of Austin from the height of the plane, tears are coming to my eyes. Our team of 50 people is checked in, we are past security, all of the bags and over 40 crates full of...

What the Heck is an Obturator?

Dentist Tom Sentz and assistant Priyanka Agrawal had a busy few days attending to many of the patients with cleft palates.  They were asked to see patients who had failed palate repairs, those who still had a hole in their palate resulting in problems eating.  Tom and...

The last case

Monday was a lon-n-n-ng day.  Because it was Monday and the first day of a mission in a new hospital, because the unexpected always pops up in these endeavors, whatever. At the end of the day, 14 children were seen in the OR for complicated, time-consuming procedures...

A Family Tradition

Long-time mission volunteer Joe Gomez has been providing his wisdom and guidance on “39 or 40” Austin Smiles trips. Joe translates, is an expert in logistics, and intuitively attends to the many details needed to make the mission run smoothly. We were all...