Spotlight on Dental Volunteerism
Restoring Much More Than
Dental Health
According to Dr. Medianick’s wife, Ann, the
2018 trip was the first time he had returned
to Ukraine since he came to the United
States in 1991 at the age of 13 and settled in
Levittown, Bucks County. Dr. Medianick’s
family members were Christians who came
here seeking religious asylum following
years of Communist persecution. At the
time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union
and under Communist control. Tim
graduated from Temple dental school in
2005 and today practices in Reading.
Ann Medianick shared some of her
experiences of the 2018 trip and her
husband’s return to his boyhood home in
an article she wrote for his Boulevard Dental
Associates blog.
Dr. Tim Medianick’s generosity and
humanitarian service is truly one of the
most unique and inspiring volunteer
stories one will ever see.
Within the last two years Dr. Medianick has
returned to the country of his birth, not
once but twice, to help people in need
during the most dire of times.
In 2018 Dr. Medianick traveled to Ukraine,
to the war zone along the eastern border,
and provided dental care to soldiers. This
trip originated from a connection he had
to a Ukrainian dentist, whom he had
provided dental materials to over the years.
He had been sending materials, including
fillings, drills and dental cement, all supplies
that are difficult and expensive to obtain
in Ukraine.
“Our van bumped and jostled its way over
pot-holed streets to our destination – the
city of Kiev, Ukrvaine, the city of my
husband’s childhood. I had heard many
stories before of his experiences in Ukraine
in our almost twenty years of knowing one
another, but now I was literally entering
his world.
We crossed over the famous Dnieper River,
and there it was – the new westernized
apartment buildings and stores, and the
Soviet-cement block apartments, all the
same death-white/gray. We pulled up to
one of those cement-block complexes, and
there was my husband’s childhood laid out
in front of him in a million memories. There
was the small store he used to visit
regularly to get food for his family of nine
siblings. He showed us how far back he
used to stand to wait for two hours to buy
chicken, chicken that hopefully wouldn’t
be gone by the time he got to the front of
the line.
Then we turned the corner to see his
apartment that miraculously fit those
ten children. The dark hallways of the
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apartment’s corridors hadn’t brightened
any. After that, we traveled across the
apartment complex to visit the school
where he attended. He showed me the
place where he fell and hit his head on the
windowsill and passed out because of it.
That was when his principal wouldn’t give
him adequate help because his family
were Christians and not members of the
communist party. Where was I during this
time? I was in a modern classroom in
America, concerned about what I might
want to be when I grow up. As a non-
communist Christian, he wouldn’t have
been allowed to go to college.
How does a boy who couldn’t have gone
to college in communist Ukraine, and who
never even had a family member go to
college, come to America at 13 and decide
so early on that he wants to be a dentist?
He used to hide from his dad to avoid
going to the dentist in Ukraine—no
wonder, since there was no novocaine.”
Ann recalled how one week into this
Ukrainian family trip, his family said
goodbye, and Tim went on his way to take
care of soldiers in the war zone, working
with his friend, the Ukrainian national who
was both a dentist and pastor.
“Tim told me that several Ukrainian soldiers
couldn’t understand why an American
would come to help them like that. But I
understand—that is who my husband is,”
she wrote.
Soldiers were lined up all day at the mobile
clinic. Many had never seen a dentist before.
The Ukrainian government provides them
with very poor dental care and the only
decent care they receive is from volunteer
dentists. Dr. Medianick and two other
Ukrainian dentists worked on the soldiers
until after 10:00 in the evening until they
saw every soldier who was waiting.