When Dr. Gard Lorey first visited El Salvador, he had learned enough Spanish to ask people about tooth pain and cavities. He knew that he and his colleagues on the Mission of Miracles medical team would travel to small, isolated villages, and that they would be seeing patients with decay, infections and other problems.

What Lorey didn't know, however, was that three years later, he would be leading the charge to ensure that Salvadorans receive preventative and corrective dental work on a regular basis.

“They don't have a whole lot of wealth, and people's last priority is their dental health,” said Lorey, a dentist in Skaneateles for more than 20 years.

Lorey is now seeking to raise money to pay for year-round dental equipment, supplies and staff. Currently, the Mission of Miracles, which is sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, includes about 30 physicians, nurses, dentists and eye doctors.

They travel to El Salvador on an annual basis, but Lorey, who will leave for his fourth trip Jan. 26, believes it's important for the citizens there to get more regular dental care.

The man he is depending on to provide this care is Oscar Hernandez, a Salvadoran dentist in his early 30s.

“He's a well-trained, very competent dentist,” Lorey said of Hernandez, whom he met during his first visit to El Salvador. “He could really practice in the United States without a problem.”

For the last few months, Lorey has worked to raise funds toward a salary for Hernandez, who, along with Salvadoran physician Daniella Flamenco (whose salary is paid by the diocese), rotates his visits between roughly 12 clinics in remote villages. Thus far, Hernandez has received about $300 to $400 per month, a substantial amount when one considers that he makes just $500 per month with his private practice in San Salvador, Lorey said.

“Now it's a win-win because El Salvadorans are helping El Salvadorans,” Lorey said.

Funds also go toward equipment and supplies, everything from fluoride tablets to toothbrushes.

Lorey said that the whole dental program could be sustained on $5,000 per year.

He has received more than $1,000 in donations from small groups at St. Mary's of the Lake Church in Skaneateles, and the Allyn Family Foundation donated $1,500 toward a mobile dentist chair, which Hernandez started using this past summer, Lorey said.

Also this summer, Hernandez made his way to Skaneateles, where he stayed with Lorey and some of the other people in the Mission of Miracles.

While here, he spoke to the Cayuga County Dental Society and also a dental group in Syracuse.

Afterward, Lorey sent out a letter to area dentists asking for $100 to keep the program going. Lorey said that fundraising method has raised about $1,500 thus far.

When Lorey first traveled down to El Salvador in 2005, he was exposed to the extent to which dental issues are problematic in the small villages. Because sugar cane grows in the wild, Salvadorans chew on it from the time they are very young, said Lorey, who, like the other members of the medical mission, pays his own way for the trip, a cost of about $1,000.

“The effects of that are very damaging to their teeth,” Lorey said of the sugar cane, adding that because many of the villagers are poor, they often wait until a problem has reached the point of an emergency to seek dental assistance.

While some members of the mission are taking bloodwork and checking for eye problems, the dental team (usually two dentists and a hygienist) are doing checkups and teaching preventative care. Last year, the group brought 160,000 fluoride tablets for teachers to distribute to their students, up from 30,000 just two years prior.

When Hernandez travels to the villages, the needs also run the gamut.

“Sometimes he does exams and cleanings. Sometimes he does fluoride treatments. Sometimes he takes out bad teeth,” Lorey said, noting that some people are self-conscious and want their damaged or diseased teeth restored. “The needs there are insurmountable.”

Lorey said that the mission attracts large numbers of Salvadorans and that the wait can be hours long. But the residents are gracious and thankful, and they make the day into a kind of festival, with singing and dancing; the women and young girls even wear their finest dresses.

“These people have very little, but they're extremely content,” Lorey said.

He likes to talk of a young boy who wanted care, but there wasn't enough time to see him. The next day, that same boy appeared at the mission's next stop, in a village two miles away.

“He showed up - I don't know how he got there,” Lorey said. (He was treated that day.)

The Mission of Miracles always visits El Salvador during the dry season, as some of the villages are difficult to access during the rainy season.

In Hernandez's e-mails to Lorey - he updates the Skaneateles dentist about once a week - Hernandez talks of concerns about hurricane season, and Lorey also noted that occurrences like earthquakes can prove problematic.

But for Lorey, who would eventually like to raise enough funds for two “traveling dentists,” it's a truly gratifying experience no matter the scenario.

“Immediately after the first year, I knew I'd be back again,” he said, noting that he particularly likes to see that the preventative education is taking hold.

Lorey's daughter Janiece, 23, who has worked in his office as a dental assistant, will accompany the medical mission this time around, while wife KC and son Tyler, now a junior at Skaneateles High School, will do so in two years.

Hernandez, too, is dedicated to the mission.

“I can't explain the sensation and feeling I enjoy after work,” Hernandez wrote in an e-mail to Lorey.

“Your words (make) me feel so good,” he wrote in a separate e-mail. “I feel I'm doing the right thing.”