500 E John W Carpenter Fwy #300, Irving, TX 75062
Colorado Dental Team Completes 1,000+ Tooth Extractions in Five Days During Kenya Medical Mission Trip
IRVING, TEXAS and DENVER (MARCH 31, 2025) … FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE … U.S. Oral Surgery Management (USOSM) congratulates its surgeon partner Michael A. Hale, DDS, and his family as they return home from their first humanitarian mission trip to Kenya.
“We commend Dr. Hale on his medical mission efforts in Kenya,” said USOSM President and CEO Richard Hall. “He has made a significant impact and should be proud of his achievements.”
During a span of just five days, Dr. Hale and his mission team treated approximately 600 patients from the Eldoret community in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Although it is a significant urban area and the second largest medical destination in the country, Eldoret has extremely limited dental care options and substantial dental needs.
“It was a very moving experience,” said Dr. Hale. “Hundreds of children, many with visible facial abscesses and severely decayed teeth, were given priority. As a team, we were able to extract over a thousand painful, hopeless teeth – including hundreds of impacted third molars – restore hundreds of teeth that could be salvaged, bonded bridges for patients who were missing anterior teeth, and removed various lesions that could be managed with local anesthesia. We worked non-stop from 7 am to 7 pm, each day, treating patients of all ages.”
Dr. Hale’s wife and two of their children (who are teenagers) assisted the dental care team, helping to run the clinic by taking radiographs, helping with sterilization and sanitation, filling prescriptions in marked coin envelopes and giving away hygiene kits with tooth brushing demonstrations. During the trip, professionals from the group worked with staff at the local hospitals to manage difficult orofacial cases, including jaw and facial tumors. In addition, they connected with a local dentist, teaching her their approach to dental care and donating equipment.
“Despite considerable time and resources devoted to our makeshift clinic, our efforts still represent a very small drop in an infinitely large bucket,” added Dr. Hale. “We have committed to return yearly for the next few years and are recruiting dental hygienists and additional dentists to maximize our outreach. I hope that by teaching a small percentage of the population how to care for their teeth – and help them live without oral pain – that those we help can communicate the message of oral care and hygiene to their community in a way that our team cannot. With that in mind, we hope to improve our impact each time we return.”
This was Dr. Hale’s first medical mission trip to Kenya. He has completed previous medical mission trips in Haiti and Samoa.
“This was our first time serving in Kenya,” said Dr. Hale. “We aren’t part of a formal organization, but we do what we can to help, and we’re grateful to USOSM for helping to support us through the Medical Mission Reimbursement Program.”
USOSM founded its Medical Mission Reimbursement Program in 2023 to support and encourage its surgeon partners in their passion for helping people in need. The program aims to enable additional participation in medical mission projects and to provide guidance to its surgeon partners on organizing and implementing them. Only USOSM surgeon partners are eligible for reimbursement under USOSM’s program.
A board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon with Colorado Oral Surgery, Dr. Hale’s primary clinical interests include administration of general anesthesia, dental implant surgery, advanced bone grafting surgery, removal of wisdom teeth, dentoalveolar surgery, jaw correction surgery and pathology.
Dr. Hale earned his bachelor’s from The University of Utah and completed his dental training at The Ohio State University, graduating with honors and earning the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Dental Implant Student Award. Afterward, he completed his oral and maxillofacial specialty training through the University of Minnesota.
With locations in Denver and Parker, Colorado Oral Surgery provides a full scope of oral and maxillofacial procedures from dental implants and wisdom tooth removal to oral pathology, corrective jaw surgery and more. The practice has five board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeons – the highest credential that can be obtained in the specialty, according to the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. For more information, visit https://www.coloradooralsurgery.com.
Headquartered in Irving, Texas, USOSM sets the standard for oral and maxillofacial surgery management. A management services organization spanning 29 states, USOSM has built a best-in-class network of premier oral and maxillofacial surgeon partners. USOSM provides operational, financial and administrative support services to fuel clinical excellence, innovation and wealth-creation. Visit: https://www.usosm.com.
Contact:
Robin Stevens
U.S. Oral Surgery Management