PDA Joins Barnabas Task to Provide Free Dental Care in Dominican Republic

More than 300 people in the Dominican Republic benefited from free extractions, cleanings, and fillings as a team from Productive Dentist Academy joined forces with Barnabas Task, a nonprofit, to provide complimentary dental care in the country.

January, 2020 – Multiple hygienists, assistants, and a U.S. dentist flew to the Dominican Republic along with staff from Productive Dentist Academy and Barnabas Task, a nonprofit, to bring dental care to the community of Santiago this past October. This is the fourth trip for Productive Dentist Academy, and the 13^th year for Barnabas Task. The coalition is continuing their efforts into 2020 with another dental mission trip to the Dominican Republic this January 16-25.

“Our goal is simple,” said Victoria Peterson, CEO of Productive Dentist Academy. “To make a positive impact on 20 million people in the world through awareness and service to others.”

During the stay, Peterson and the rest of the team tended to patients from New Hope Girls, an organization dedicated to breaking the cycles of abuse and exploitation of young girls in the Dominican. They also served members of the general community, both adults and children.

“During our week of service we helped 341 patients, but it wasn’t about quantity, it was about quality: quality in our time with the patients, community, and our fellow team,” said Regan Robertson, President & CMO of Productive Dentist Academy, who also volunteered for the mission. “One of our core tenets at PDA is ‘Doing good while doing good.’ As a business we actively seek out opportunities to uplift our global community. We were fortunate to align with Tom Hinton and Barnabas Task to help realize our goal on an international scale.”

Tom Hinton, the co-founder of Barnabas Task, says that volunteering and community service is a great way to make a difference in the world and to positively impact other people’s lives. It was his nonprofit that was responsible for organizing the event and handling logistics.

“The hallmark of Barnabas Task is that we care for people,” said Hinton. “We spend time with people, we find out why they are here, we pray for them, we build long-term relationships with them so that our impact is felt after we leave, not just during our time with them in person. The volunteers of this mission demonstrated expertise, professionalism, and the ability to perform restorative care, extractions, and cleanings. But the significant mark they left in Santiago is that they loved people, cared for them, and built relationships.”

Dr. Chad Johnson, a faculty member at Productive Dentist Academy and a dentist with his own practice, was also one of those volunteers. In addition to providing dental care, Johnson and others presented technology and advice to professionals in the Dominican Republic, sharing the latest U.S. trends in patient care and oral systemic connection to his Caribbean counterparts. Barnabas Task attending missionary, Hygienist Nancy Mann, also gave a presentation regarding whole body health and hygiene.

“The local dentists in the Dominican wanted to know more about the latest in technology,” Johnson said. “I was able to share with them advancements in pharmacology, laser dentistry, and implementing CBCT into implant surgical design. What excited them is that I also offered to bring my laser for demonstration the next time I am there in an effort to get them to work alongside Barnabas throughout the year at the free clinic, knowing that we would have more free technology available for them to try and use. I also gave them samples of compounded topical, and I left them sodium bycarbonate to buffer the anesthetic, which should be a big benefit in not only making patients more comfortable, but also making dentists more efficient.”

About Productive Dentist Academy

Productive Dentist Academy is a dental-consulting and marketing firm located in Anacortes, Wash. It works with dentists throughout the United States to fine-tune, expand and build businesses. This work ranges from helping dentists to start up new practices to helping them deal with mid-career slumps or developing a custom business-development plan, and exploring retirement options. Productive Dentist Academy also helps dentists to expand and find ways to increase productivity while simultaneously decreasing stress. PDA has been in operation since 2004, and it currently provides assistance to thousands of dentists throughout the country. For more information, call (360) 709-7765 or visit www.productivedentist.com.

About Barnabas Task

Barnabas Task, founded by Tom and Nancy Hinton in 2008, provides community health evangelism throughout the world. Tom is a pioneer pastor, and has worked as a mission’s coordinator/connector with various ministries throughout the United States. Since 1980, he has facilitated church planting in Boston, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Chile as well as coordinated significant Disaster Relief responses worldwide. A popular engaging speaker, Tom has served with the Global CHE Network Service Team and is certified CHE trainer. He also serves as a consultant to World Challenge, Latin America, and the Caribbean. His focus has been leadership training in a small group setting. Nancy is a Nurse Practitioner and Hospitalist at Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne, Ind. She is passionate about prevention care. The Hinton’s have six daughters and 15 grandchildren. They reside in Bradenton, Florida. For more information, visit www.barnabastask.org.