acific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2018 - 24

Portrait of a Professional

Seven-year-old after multiple
extractions at the Barangay
headquarters, Philippines

Dr. Engst and Muslim patient in a
Philippines clinic

BH: You are working overseas around six months
per year. With this level of commitment, you
must get a great sense of satisfaction from what
you are doing.

David is an excellent orthodontist, but he always
had a latent desire to help the needy in the developing world. Thus, he took early "retirement" and
redirected his career to providing volunteer services.

DE: Of course. My work gives me immense personal satisfaction. I volunteer because I enjoy the
work and because the people are so grateful.
People make humble gifts for me. For example,
recently a young girl brought me flowers she had
picked in a field. Patients almost always say
"thank you." They look you right in the eye, and
they mean it.

In his early trips, he was sometimes uncomfortable
when encountering cases like severe infections in
an isolated setting with no backup. The UW Oral
Surgery department allowed him to design his
own postgrad program, training alongside the oral
surgery residents. He limited his focus to procedures that he would likely see in his new role, such
as complex extractions and infections.

BH: Any other thoughts or comments you would
like to add?

In the initial years, he would take his sons, Adam
and Cooper, to assist him. It was a sort of
father/son bonding. Also, I think he was teaching
his sons empathy and kindness by example.

DE: Yes. I have been pleasantly surprised to see
so many orthodontists volunteering abroad. I
remember meeting an orthodontist working
alongside his son, who was a new dentist. The
son was constantly bailing out his dad by redoing
blocks and recovering broken roots. That father
was so proud of his son.
BH: Thanks for sharing your humanitarian experiences - and adventures - with us.
DE: Thank you for interviewing me. Every day is
an adventure. Traveling with dental instruments
is a challenging and satisfying way of meeting
people in places unseen by regular tourists.
  
BH: Long-term University of Washington (UW)
orthodontic faculty member Dr. Allan Van Ness
offered the following observations on Dr. Engst:
I know David well having met him when he was a
dental student at UW. Later, I knew him as a resident in the UW orthodontic program when I was
on the faculty.

David has self-funded his travel, equipment, and
supplies. On one trip he brought a large supply of
slightly misprinted Harley Davidson t-shirts. He
was giving these shirts to his patients as a gift
after surgery. The t-shirts were so popular that kids
would feign pain and request an extraction just to
get one. Of course, Dave would not remove a good
tooth, but he would give them a shirt anyway.
In your interview, David minimized the current risk
involved in his volunteer work. Nevertheless, his life
has been threatened several times. Also, the Philippine Special Forces unit that recently accompanied
David had lost two members the week before in
skirmishes with ISIS-backed militants.
David and I taught a class together in the UW
orthodontic program and were founding members
of the Puget Sound Orthodontic Study Club in
1979. We also sail radio-controlled model sailboats
together in the summer.
I feel privileged to have Dave as one of my closest
friends. The honor of the AAO Humanitarian
Award is well-deserved. 

PCSO Bulletin  Summer 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of acific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Summer 2018