LAKEPORT >> Drs. Keith Long, DDS and Henry Long, DDS, brothers and fellow dentists at Southern Smiles Dental Practice in Lakeport, have been completing a residency program in Puerto Rico, where they have witnessed the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and are learning advanced implant techniques from renowned dental surgeons, as well as performing surgeries on Puerto Ricans and patients from around the world—including some from Lakeport.
The brothers had originally planned to go to Puerto Rico solely for the unique opportunity offered which them to learn complex dental techniques at the American Academy of Implant Dentistry’s (AAID) Puerto Rico Maxicourse® Program and Clinical Residency in Implant Dentistry in San Juan. The course, taught by Dr. Hilt Tatum, a legendary pioneer in the field of implant dentistry, and Dr. José Pedroza, founder, and director of the Advanced Dental Implant Institute (ADII), is one of the most sought-after of its kind.
But when Hurricane Irma affected Puerto Rico, the residency was postponed by a month. Just two weeks later, Hurricane Maria laid waste to the island, leading to thousands of deaths and the most extended power outage in the history of the United States. By this time, the Long brothers’ trip had become about much more than a residency. It was about providing healthcare despite all odds, and aid where it meant the most. Puerto Rico was in ruins, but according to the Long brothers, the crisis gave them motivation.
“We told Dr. Tatum, ‘even if we gotta stay in a tent, we’re going.’” The course had been thrown into uncertainty after Maria but was set back on track by the Long brothers’ enthusiasm. Of the original 18 who had signed up for the course, 12 made the journey. They began to refer to themselves as the “twelve disciples of Dr. Tatum,” developing a tight bond through the intensity of their time together.
“It has been a life-changing experience,” said Keith Long. “I’m different than I was before.” Being from Louisiana, they were used to seeing hurricanes, the brothers said. When Hurricane Katrina tore through the state in 2005, their parents couldn’t go back to their house for six months. “Part of our motivation to go down there was having seen the destruction during Katrina,” said Keith Long.
When they first arrived in Puerto Rico 41 days after Hurricane Maria, they saw “complete devastation.” Passing over the island as their plane prepared to land, Henry Long described seeing a sea of blue tarps stretched over roofless houses, and all the trees “lying in the same direction, laid down like matchsticks.” In San Juan, they saw a woman standing in her empty doorway, and the entire house vanished from behind her.
Sustained wind speeds had reached 155 mph, with even more powerful gusts. Official damage count was over $90 billion. The official death toll, which has been the subject of much controversy, was at just 64, but real fatality levels were much higher (a Harvard study estimated over 4,500 deaths). However, the Long brothers said they “noticed right away that the people there weren’t sad… they’d just gotten a left hook to the chin, but they were happy, nice, and glad we were there.”
This stoicism greatly impressed the Long brothers, who, along with the other participants in the program, donated enough money to support 40 families in the East-central Puerto Rican city of Comerío with food, water, and other supplies.
During the program in San Juan, the Long brothers have been able to treat, among many others, a woman from Lakeport whose jawbone had deteriorated, and who had not been able to eat solid food for years. The typical cost to rebuild a jaw to that degree, Henry Long said, can be over $100,000. But by implementing a philosophy of implant dentistry that is advanced by the residency program in Puerto Rico and by Dr. Hilt Tatum, the patient’s bill was reduced to less than $10,000. The reason for this price difference is that “implant dentistry like [ours],” said Henry Long, “is cheaper because it doesn’t depend on manufacturing. It requires skill—it requires a surgeon.”
Both brothers, who specialize in dental implant surgery, hope to someday open a training center for such work in Lake County. First, though, they are working on creating a “world-class dental lab” in their practice. And that will come after they finish their Puerto Rico residencies in August. Ultimately, the Long brothers, as ‘disciples’ of Dr. Hilt Tatum, are concerned with changing the way implant dentistry is taught throughout the world, “starting from right here in Lake County.”
