Dentaltown October 2022 - 70

At Palmer Station, a U.S. Antartic Program research station south of Chile.
Playing pickleball at the South Pole station in
2021; the temperature was 45 below and windy.
in 2013, so no dentist from the U.S. was
sent that season.) Th e program bought a
digital X-ray system and I've brought down
more modern dental equipment including
newer handpieces, newer curing lights and
composite systems, a full range of endo
supplies and other materials like better
matrix systems.
Th ere is no other dentist when I'm not
there, but some of the medical staff who
return each year have learned how to deal
with basic dental repairs like chipped teeth
or lost fi llings.
How many other dentists travel to
McMurdo to practice during a typical
year? Do " newbies " receive any sort
of training before they land?
Th ere's only one dentist for six weeks
(early January to mid-February) for the
program, and the rest of the time, I'm the
consultant off the ice. Typically, I get two
to four dental consults a month from the
medical staff at the three stations, and
between the writeups and digital X-rays, I
can advise them how to treat the patients.
In 2015, I started doing a dental workshop
each August in Galveston at the
orientation for new medical staff before they
70 OCTOBER 2022 // dentaltown.com
head south. I found a dental offi ce willing
to lend me an operatory for two three-hour
sessions, where physicians, nurses, physician
assistants, nurse practitioners and even the
pharmacist get hands-on training about
taking digital dental X-rays, using a mirror,
explorer, perio probe and tooth sleuth, and
the basics of dental anatomy. Th e goal is
to teach them to feel comfortable taking
a history, then looking inside someone's
mouth to help diagnose a problem that
they can send me to discuss.
I've gone down seven times in the past
10 years, and I believe there were dentists in
the past who went for a few years running,
but so far we haven't found a replacement
who wants to return for multiple seasons.
Which products and equipment
are your " musts " in this practice
situation?
Th e upgrades I've been able to bring
down include handpieces from Kavo, endo
and composite systems from Coltene, matrix
systems from Garrison, delivery systems
from Centrix and numerous products from
Ultradent. It's a fairly well-equipped dental
offi ce for general dentistry, with a goal to be
able to treat most routine dental procedures.
After 38 years of practice,
you recently decided to sell
your Colorado Springs practice
and retire from dentistry.
What's next on the agenda?
It's been 40 years since I graduated from
UF in 1982, so it seemed like a good time
to retire from my practice and have the
fl exibility to be spontaneous. I don't feel
like I'm retiring from dentistry, but more
from the responsibility of running a practice.
For the next few years, I plan to keep
my Colorado and Alaska dental licenses. In
August, I spent a few weeks 30 miles north
of the Arctic Circle, doing locum work in
Kotzebue, Alaska, then spent a few days
seeing the sights in Anchorage.
I'm also open to fi ll in for dentists in
places like Kwajalein, which I checked out
recently, or to do some volunteer work in
Poland on refugees from Ukraine.
I might even go back to Antarctica
once the quarantine requirements are gone,
because the last time I went, in 2020-2021,
it required four weeks of hotel isolation
before arriving, and I'm not interested in
repeating that. I feel fortunate to be able to
retire in good health and with enough energy
to enjoy a little work and a lot of play! ■
South Pole
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Dentaltown October 2022

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