Dentist spreads smiles - Children and Dental Care

Dentist spreads smiles
December 26, 2007
By BARBARA S. ROTHSCHILD
Courier-Post Staff
CHERRY HILL

What began as a way of teaching his children by example has become a reward in itself for dentist Howard Lassin.

Lassin, a Cherry Hill native who now lives in Lumberton -- but maintains his dental practice just a few minutes from where he grew up in Kingston Estates -- recently returned from his second mission to China as a member of Operation Smile.

Lassin, 49, was part of an international team assisting plastic surgeons who operated on children and young adults with cleft palates and other facial deformities.

The 12-day trip, in mid-November, was one of 40 missions in 25 countries that occurred simultaneously in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia as part of Operation Smile's World Journey of Smiles. The happening was timed to observe the 25th anniversary of Operation Smile, founded by Norfolk, Va., plastic surgeon Bill Magee and his wife, Kathleen, a nurse and clinical social worker.

In all, more than 100,000 children and young adults have been treated by Operation Smile volunteers -- including 4,149 during November's World Journey of Smiles.

Lassin's involvement with Operation Smile began five years ago when he was sensing the satisfaction his wife, Allison, got from volunteer work, and his children -- Riley, 14, and Logan, 11 -- derived from performing commandments, or mitzvahs, that include charitable deeds. Doing mitzvahs is a part of their curriculum at Kellman Academy, the Jewish day school they attend near his office.

"I'd come home, and I'd be the bum in the family. There comes a time when you sit down and say, "I'm very lucky.' You lead by example," Lassin said.

While taking one of the dental classes he attends periodically to keep up to date on the latest technology in his field, Lassin heard about twice-yearly dental missions to Vietnam.

"I thought, "I can do that! I'll just say, "I'd like to go on a dental mission to Vietnam, please,' " he surmised.

But it wasn't so easy; there was a long waiting list for good Samaritan dentists who wanted to fix Vietnamese kids' teeth.

Then, a patient of Lassin's who is a pediatrician told him about Operation Smile, suggesting he go on a surgical mission. Lassin applied and, in July 2005, was tapped for his first mission to China.

After taking courses on making prosthetic appliances called obturators that fill voids in the palate, Lassin was ready to go to Harbin, in northeastern China. He was the sole dentist accompanying eight plastic surgeons who would be seeing children and young adults with cleft palates, cleft lips and other facial deformities.

Lassin's job, then and this time, was to support the plastic surgeons by preparing patients with gaps or with bad teeth that would impede surgery.

Again, he was the lone dentist on the mission -- this time in Linyi, an industrial city on China's east coast.

On his recent 12-day mission, Lassin worked late into each night. He conducted about 150 exams and constructed five obturators needed to facilitate the plastic surgeons' work. The clinic he worked in most of the time had new equipment that facilitated the work at hand, he said, likening the standard of care to that at large teaching hospitals such as the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Lassin divided his time at the Linyi hospital complex between the dental clinic, where he would take impressions, make models and insert the obturators, and the surgical wing, where he would extract infected and broken teeth so the plastic surgeons could then operate.

"Every kid gets a dental exam. They may travel 10 hours by bus to the exam site, then not be eligible for surgery. So I'm the hardest-working guy there," he said.

He conferred with local dentists through young translators affiliated with Chinese hotels. Members of the mission -- including two high school students whose job was to play with the youngest children before their surgeries -- stayed at a nearby hotel and were bused to the Linyi hospital about 15 minutes away every day.

The mission's 41 members worked with 18 Chinese surgeons and volunteers during the course of each day. Members of the mission, from the United States, Australia, Italy, Belgium, Egypt and other nations, conversed among themselves primarily in English.

Children were well-behaved and interested in the international visitors, Lassin said.

"We screened 220 and worked on 147 kids. Maybe three were screaming," he said.

On his first trip, Lassin spent $2,000 to $3,000 out of pocket toward supplies and other expenses. This time, in addition to donating his services, Lassin paid about $500 toward the cost of his airfare and hotel stay. He also paid for his own dinners in China, spending another $500. Although supplies were promised through the mission, he also brought his own supplies and surgical instruments, and was glad he did.

"The other supplies never came," he said.

There was also the cost of shutting down his Cherry Hill office for two weeks.

"I have a supportive staff. They would go on the mission, too, if they could," Lassin said.

The missions are needed because of such poor access to medical care in so many parts of the world, he added.

"The need is hopefully getting less, but it's nice to have this one little thing I can do to help people," he said.

Lassin noted he was fulfilling the Jewish tenet of tikkun olam, or repairing the world.

"On this mission, we repaired the world a little bit," Lassin said.

"It's an amazing experience. It's nice to do a little repair and keep the world spinning. I hope to do it again one of these days," he said.

Reach Barbara S. Rothschild at (856) 486-2416 or brothschild@courierpostonline.com

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