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Dentist brings business background to bear on charity venture

What happens when you combine a dentist with a successful business background and a sincere desire to help the less fortunate? In the case of general dentist Dr. Lauren Hargrove, World Dental Outreach (WDO) is the happy result. This charitable organization was created by Dr. Hargrove when he was a freshman at the Medical College of Georgia to supply new equipment and dental supplies to clinics across the world.

From salesman to premed to dentist - Dr. Hargrove started a business career light years away from a life of mission trips and dental care.  After trying a round of business courses in college, he dropped out and instead became a highly successful salesman with a London clothing firm.  Ultimately, material success in sales failed to keep his interest.

< Picture: The Center for Community Health in Augusta, Georgia, USA.  WDO and Dr. Hargrove worked to have all new equipment donated for the dental operatory part of the indigent clinic.

"I realized I didn't want to be selling clothes at age 50, no matter how successful I was, so I decided to go back to school," said Dr. Hargrove.  "I was looking for a career that offered more personal fulfillment, so I settled on becoming a surgeon." After working full tilt for a pre-med degree, and taking a double load of courses while working to pay tuition, Dr. Hargrove ended up with a degree and an urge to take a break.  "I took a year off to relax and visit and apply to medical schools," said Dr. Hargrove. 

"Then by chance I found the opportunity to fly to Jamaica on a medical mission trip with Christian Medical Dental Society (CMDS).  I wanted to experience mission work while I still had time, before I entered school and practice, so I jumped at the chance."

A life changing experience in Jamaica - The trip became a life changing experience for the student with the privileged background.  "We worked 10 to 12 hour days.  The oral surgeon in charge of the mission, Dr. Sam Molind, took out around 150 teeth per day," said Dr. Hargrove.  "This was really rapid work, because most of the extractions were surgical procedures on broken teeth."  The Jamaican dental clinic had no equipment, and the work was done with no x-rays or suction.  "The work was hard, but the people were so appreciative," said Dr. Hargrove.  "Some people walked 10 hours to the clinic to stand in line for 10 hours a day, and some didn't get in for care.  Their need was so great.  Seeing that need, and learning and talking to Dr. Molind really changed my life.  After I returned home, I withdrew all my medical school applications, and started applying to dental schools."

< Picture: WDO and Dr. Hargrove worked to donate several thousand dollars worth of equipment and supplies to the successful Green Warren Dental Clinic in Gainesville begun by Dr. Edwin Burnette. 

Business skills produce charitable donations - Knowing he wanted to be a dentist did not allow Dr. Hargrove to immediately address the lack of dental care and equipment for the indigent, in Jamaica or anywhere else.  "When you visit a clinic overseas, little works --the lights, nothing," said Dr. Hargrove.  "It's not good to send old equipment overseas either.  It may not work well, and it cannot be maintained."  He began approaching dental supply houses about donating new equipment for CMDS activities but realized calling the same supply houses over and over again for small requests was not efficient, and taxed the business' patience.

Dr. Hargrove used his business acumen to begin gathering supply requests from various clinics and individuals and approaching the dental wholesalers in a methodical way.  His clearinghouse idea evolved into WDO, a registered charitable organization which fields supply requests from across the world and assigns them to suppliers with the appropriate overruns of inventory.

While busy setting up WDO as an official 501(c)(3) charity, Dr. Hargrove was accepted into the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry.  He traveled home to Atlanta from Augusta to conduct WDO business almost every weekend, but it was in Augusta he found the first opportunity to make an impact with his charity.

"A nurse practitioner at the Beulah Grove Baptist Church medical clinic in Augusta contacted me with an interest in starting a dental component for the indigent," said Dr. Hargrove.  Through WDO, Dr. Hargrove coordinated the donation of $40,000 in new equipment (including compressors, x-ray, drills, and an autoclave) for the clinic's fledging dental clinic, enough to run one operatory.  The clinic is still operational.

WDO growing in scope - WDO now has an established network of donation and wholesale accounts at dental manufacturers.  "We have lots of repeat requests, and don't want to burn out companies' good will, so I established some wholesale accounts for supplies such as surgical instruments and dental units which are not donated," said Dr. Hargrove.  "Most companies give one large donation per year, perhaps two.  Hu-Friedy is one ongoing supporter which donates whole sets of instruments, amalgam kits, and perio kits, and KaVo and Stryker Instruments are also big supporters.  "In total, WDO arranged around $350,000 worth of donations in 1999, including $30,000 in portable equipment for a dental clinic in Rwanda.  "We recently finished a project with the mission relief group Samaritan's Purse to help interested locals at least do palliative work in Rwanda," said Dr. Hargrove.  "It's difficult.  Civil war has decimated the country's social structure.  One relief worker was even killed there in 1999."  Oddly, Dr. Hargrove found one unexpected obstacle when calling publishers to get copies of major dental texts in French for the Rwandans.  "Publisher after publisher said they had every language but French.  I don't see how the French have practiced dentistry all these years."

WDO (in reality Dr. Hargrove working alone--the organization has an unpaid Board of Directors, but no staff) also tries to educate volunteer doctors about the challenges of overseas dental care (see link at top of page).  "I can direct volunteers on where to obtain portable equipment and supplies, but I can also warn them about the corrupt politicians who skim donation money and the airport officials who take supplies away," said Dr. Hargrove.  "I can help keep volunteers from making common mistakes."

The future of WDO's charitable efforts - The realities of starting a practice, paying student debt, taking a range of Pankey courses, and working six days a week have hit Dr. Hargrove hard.  "For now, I make fewer calls on behalf of WDO asking how can we help, and I deal more with calls as they come in," said Dr. Hargrove.  Since his obligations keep him from traveling overseas himself, he stays busy training other volunteers, and finding places for excesses of donated supplies.  "I have periodontal instruments and restorative supplies coming in faster than I can give them away," said Dr. Hargrove.  "Most dentists who volunteer overseas need extraction tools, so I am looking for clinics or volunteers who need these other materials."

Once the debts are paid, and practice growing pangs settle, Dr. Hargrove wants to take more mission trips himself.  In the meantime, he is available to speak to members with an interest in volunteer dentistry.

WDO's, and Dr. Hargrove's, story is still being written.  As he told the Medical College of Georgia publication Today, "I feel like God has used all my skills to get me ready for this.  It's all built up to this.  I never expected to get to this point.  And who knows where we're going from here?"

Source: GDA Action, the Journal of the Georgia Dental Association, March 2000.