AND THE WINNER IS…….

We would like to congratulate Krissie for winning our Kids to Kids photo and drawing contest. About two months ago we started asking our younger patients to create a drawing and a photo of themselves for us to take to the kids in Nicaragua at the orphanage Venga Tu Reino. We had over 75 kids enter and it was so fun to see the Nicaraguan kids pour over the drawings and photos.

One of our patients even made a hat out of paper and asked me to give it to one of the kids at the orphanage. I gave the hat to one of the boys and he wouldn’t take it off all day. Check out the smile on his face…..

One of the kids in Nicaragua had the best smile. This is Franklin with our tooth brushing demo lion…

Congratulations again to Krissie…..She won a 25$ gift card to In N Out and two movie tickets.

COUCH AND HAMMOND Nicaragua Humanitarian Dental Mission Trip Day 3

We got up early and headed out to the orphanange for our last day. When we arrived we were greeted by a line of locals anxiously awaiting to be seen. Word spreads fast!

Locals awaiting our arrival

We got straight to work pulling teeth and doing restorative dental fillings. We saw more adult patients today and therefore more acute dental needs.

Soaking it all in

The pre-dental students from BYU-Idaho were now seasoned veterans and were able to get a lot of hands on experience to hopefully help solidify their resolve to become dentists. We could not have provided as much care as we did without them!

David Stafford

Chad Christiansen

Dustin Peterson and Spencer Desanti

Ryan Leininger

Kasey Hendricks

Spencer Desanti

Jared Roberts

We especially want to thank Jared Roberts who did most of the organizing, planning and leg-work to make this such a successful and memorable dental mission! We also want to thank Hal Young, president of the Worldwide Child Relief Foundation for sponsoring and having the vision to make this happen!

A big thank you from some of the orphange kids! What a fantastic group of kids!

Our parting memory of Nicaragua was fantastic as we spent the evening on the beach reminiscing about our most memorable moments of the trip.

Dr. Hammond (nicknamed "El Che" aka The Man) picking his souvenirs.

A great way to end the day!

Adios Nicaragua! Esperamos regresar un dia en el futuro.

COUCH AND HAMMOND Nicaragua Humanitarian Dental Mission Trip Day 2

Another early morning and another hot day!

We all jumped in the van and headed back out to the orphanage with a prayer in our hearts that the new compressor would work. We moved the “mobile clinic” into one of the classrooms where we felt we had better crowd control. The compressor was there but it also didn’t function. Apparently an air compressor pulls too much electricity and their power supply is too weak. We sent Hal Young, the president of the Worldwide Child Relief Foundation out to get a generator! Hal was able to come through after pleading his case to the local “Godfather” of the community. So by 11:00am we were up and running!

All of us set to go!

"What's going on in there?"

The kids we were able to do dentistry on were awesome! Almost all of them needed extractions and fillings. Not one of them cried or complained. They kept thanking us all day long.

Our mobile clinic

Dr. Couch and Dr. Hammond hard at work

The pre-dental students finally got their hands-on dental experience that they were looking for. All of them got to extract teeth, drill out cavities and help place fillings! We did a lot of work today! Jason Couch (a current 3rd year dental student at UCSF) did as much operative dentistry and oral surgery today than the last 3 months of school clinic time combined!

Towards the end of the day we were asked to treat some of the adult staff of the school next to the orphanage as well. On one adult alone we did ten fillings!

The day was exhausting but very rewarding! Tomorrow will bring similar opportunities to serve the orphans and local Nicaraguans.

COUCH AND HAMMOND DENTISTRY IN Nicaragua Day 1 !!!

Wow! It is hot and humid here!

After long flights on Wednesday, we arrived in Managua, Nicaragua at around 10pm. We loaded a large van full of luggage and dental equipment and headed north to Leon.

Arriving in Managua

An hour and a half later we arrived at the hotel, cranked the A/C, and crashed!

We woke up early this morning and it was still hot! LOL! We picked up an old industrial air compressor and drove another hour northeast to the middle of no-where. After passing many volcanos (some smoking others threatening), goats, horse-drawn carts, cows crossing the road, and many humble “casitas” we arrived at Venga tu Reino orphange. We set up shop, got organized and were ready to go when the air compressor that we rented blew! We tried to fix it ourselves, the local handyman tried to fix it but it was all to no avail. So we made the most of the situation by taking x-rays and doing exams on about 40 kids, placed sealants and did a fabulous dental hygiene presentation with magic tricks and crowd participation that rivaled Vegas!

Dr. Couch teaching the kids how to brush and floss!

One of the cute local girls

We love these kids!

Dr. Hammond placing sealants on Franklin

Dr. Couch treating 9 yr old Anna

Dr. Hammond in the "zone"

Jason Couch with his new girlfriends...

The BYU-Idaho pre-dental students were able to do most of the x-rays and give a lot of the presentation to the kids in Spanish. It was an awesome first day in spite of our compressor problems. We are hopeful that tomorrow’s replacement compressor will come through.

Taking X-Rays and treatment planning

We came back to Leon tired and still hot and met with the Dean of Leon’s Dental School. We were interested to learn that the students here go straight to a 5 year dental program right out of high school. We toured their facility and made some friends there for possible future contact. They offered the use of their facility to us in the future as well. One of their students is going to join us on Saturday.

We’re now going to take a nice cold shower, pump the A/C and hit the sack!

Adios muchachos!

Couch and Hammond 2011 Ponderosa Scholarship Award Night

Daryl Lambert, Jenna Lambert, Denise Lambert

What a fun night it was! Well, Dr. Couch and Dr. Hammond are on their way to Nicaragua so I, Gale Couch, had the wonderful opportunity to present Miss Jenna Lambert, with the Couch and Hammond 2011 Scholarship Award. She is a Senior at Ponderosa High School and very deserving of this award and the others that she received tonight.

We have had the blessing of knowing Jenna for several years and have been able to see her participate in Ponderosa High School Athletics, Community Service Projects, Extra Curricular activities and School Activities, not to mention that she maintains a 4.0 gpa. She is truly an exceptional young woman and we are thrilled to be able to present her with this years Scholarship award.

At Couch and Hammond dentistry, we value the youth in our community. We recognize the importance of education, community service, leadership and extra curricular activities and appreciate how hard Jenna and so many other youth in our community work to excel in all of these areas.

We see a bright future in our community because of so many young adults like Jenna that live in this area. We commend and congratulate all 2011 graduating Seniors. Good luck and keep up the great work!
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