North Texas Dentistry Volume 7 Issue 4 NTD 2017 ISSUE 4 CONV DE | Page 9

This mission trip was one of many Sloan Hildebrand has
dreamed up and the sixth international dental mission
undertaken by Sloan and his fellow dentist-explorer friends,
Dr. Damien Mulvany and Paul Tamburello. These three amigos,
who first worked together in Senegal, Africa, share a passion for
adventure and service. They have set out to provide dental care
to people in some of the world’s most remote regions, adults
and children living in communities far off the beaten path where
the need for dental care is both immense and unmet.
In keeping with his vision of balancing the cross through work,
play, love, and worship, the team took in as much adventure as
time would allow between clinics set up along the barren coast,
in village homes, or deep in the jungles. Their visions came to
life by working as hard as possible during the day to serve those
in need while finding time to dirtbike, explore, surf and camp on
the beach at a remote sea turtle sanctuary. They each find great
joy in simply being with the locals in their natural environment.
But the unforgettable adventures were made even more reward-
ing by the primary purpose of the trip – to help some of Central
America’s poorest and most isolated communities.
Setting up makeshift dental clinics around the world enables
the team to provide much needed treatment to grateful patients,
often with an audience of wide-eyed children who have never
seen anything quite like the visiting dentists. When meals are
served, the guys typically prefer to eat alongside the warm and
welcoming villagers they treated, and after a long day,
instead of ducking into a hotel for a hot shower and a soft bed,
they prefer to sleep suspended in hammocks or in tents under
the stars.
Technology helps the team stay in touch and ensure safety
around the world. Sloan currently uses a Garmin inReach
Explorer which enables him to send and receive messages as
well as latitude and longitude location updates to his family
back at home. He attributes the successful and productive
trips to prayer, pre-planning, and careful communication
with the help of trusted locals to build trust and paint realistic
expectations.
At some point in his travels, Sloan realized that dirtbiking,
a favorite activity since his childhood, could be a convenient and
expedient mode of transportation to distant locales out of reach
by other means. Since that realization, the remote “moto-
dentistry” concept has enabled Sloan to successfully combine
three important passions – service, dentistry, and dirtbikes.
Sloan serving with his Mom
by his side, most recently in
Nicaragua. She organized suit-
cases full of hats and scarves to
give to the men and women in
the villages.
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