02/26/2026
Dr. Casey recently embarked on a dental mission trip with the Honduran Children's Rescue Fund to Honduras.
"Reflecting upon my mission trip now that I have returned has only strengthened my conviction and desire to repeat a trip like this. I had no idea what to expect as I joined forces with a group of medical providers mostly from Cleveland. I chose this group because of the many years of successful missions and felt like I could really make a difference. I was one of 5 dentists working over the four-day mission.
In addition to the dental team, we were blessed to have sports medicine physicians to help with aching knees and shoulders, Internal medicine physicians to monitor overall health, ophthalmologists to help with eye related problems and pharmacists to dispense over 1300 pounds of medication to the over 1300 patients we saw as a group.
I had several different engaging and rewarding interactions with patients during my time in Honduras. One patient really hit home for me and embodied why I decided to make the effort and travel to Honduras. Almost all the patients we saw as part of the dental team had multiple infected primary or permanent teeth that required extraction. What struck me about Cesar was that he made the three-hour drive from his home in a remote area of the country to our clinic with his aunt in hopes of having his aching, infected tooth removed. This is not the type of thing a 10-year-old should have to do. He showed up at out site, and it was abundantly clear he needed an extraction. He sat quietly in our makeshift dental chair as I utilized local and ultimately removed the infected lower left second primary molar. As soon as the tooth was removed, he kept repeating “Gracias Doctor, Gracias Doctor”. He gave me a big hug and a fist bump and wanted to know when I could return.
My goal in travelling to Honduras was to help heal those in severe need. When I think back, I feel that by healing them they helped to heal me. As I make plans to return next year, I hope that we can provide a compassionate level of care and next time to treat even more patients."
A total of 1,322 patient's were treated during this mission.
A HUGE shout out to Henry Schein Cares and Septodont for their overwhelming generosity, donating more than $7,000 in dental supplies.