Liahona High School Graduation

Headed out the door to graduation – 184 graduates, from all over the South Pacific.

 

Everyone is busy before-hand, making leis.

 

If you want to take a photo, or if you admire someone’s lei, it’s suddenly yours, with a smile.

 

The daughter of our friend from Papua, New Guinea, graduated from Liahona High School. There are 11,000 members in New Guinea.

 

There were lots of very proud family members. Graduating from high school is a very big deal. It really is the passport to a prosperous life in countries with few economic opportunities. As we watched the graduates receive their diplomas, it made my graduation from B.Y.U. seem small in comparison.

Everyone was thrilled to have their picture taken. They’re humble people who are justifiably proud of their families.

Sometimes you just need to take a break!

 

Many of the graduates will go on to B.Y.U. Hawaii to continue their education.

 

Others will submit their mission papers. I do a lot of pre-missionary exams in the clinic.

 

Without a screening and treatment at the Liahona Campus Dental Clinic, many of these students graduate with unresolved oral pathology, If we could do nothing more than comprehensively treat the students at the high school, so they would graduate with healthy mouths, we would be satisfied.

This is what we deal with every day.  4 years old – 20 decayed teeth. The rule of thumb is: remove the primary teeth that hurt, and leave the rest (decayed) to serve as space maintainers, until the permanent teeth come in. I have been doing a lot of Class 1 / occlusal composites on 6 and 12 year olds, because by the time they are 8 or 14, their teeth are bombed. We have also implemented a protocol to apply fluoride varnish on everyone’s teeth at every appointment, no matter what they have come in for.

THIS is how I like to think of these kids!