The bright, brisk morning began too early for the small city near the Ozark forests, so I headed out of town to take in some of the local back roads with Fall setting in on the foliage. The sleek black tar road curved right, left, up, over, down almost off a cliff, through the wrinkled S’s that split into Y’s at a moment’s notice, and out onto the open rolling farms and pastures of rural Missouri. What a welcome sight to the Show Me State.
For certain, the poor economic times showed too many crumpled, ruined barns like ruined lives, and yet, the lush country still displayed its beauty in as many homes spread with tailored lawns, fields, fences, and pickups accompanied by sheds and huge rolls of hay packed aside for winter, even an occasional yellow “Watch for Amish Buggies” sign. 
his citified fellow, Manhart, gets captured by rural scenes with little awareness of all the labor behind the landscapes. Farming is for the tough ones. I then noticed the time and headed back to our work at hand, a dental seminar with a luncheon presentation that Autumn Saturday, 2010. The fastest way back to town was a bypass loop on the main highway to meet my colleague at his dental office for a day of patient demonstrations and training in the Methods of Calcium Therapy. When I drove up to the small building this time, I watched Dr. S. pull in. He seemed late for our appointment. No, it was the Late Mark Manhart, again. The good doctor had been there and gone to my motel nearby to see if I had slept through my wakeup call. 
It felt good to meet a rather normal, shy confidant about my age. We set out our dental equipment and were joined by doctor’s office manager. Nan gave us the schedule for nine patients with gum troubles to deal with over the day. She had warned me, “Doctor has reservations about this Calcium Therapy.” Nan and Dr. S. were introduced to these therapies months earlier by a patient of their office who had come from Missouri to us in Omaha over the last few years. We had made significant progress in resolving the patient’s dental troubles. Nan was impressed and also came to Omaha. The experiences of the two women with the calcium treatments were so effective they arranged the seminar for Dr. S. as well as lunch time talk for the public. Sort of a “Show Me” day in Missouri.
First on the agenda we two dentists just talked. “Doc, what are your concerns?” I began.
“This diastema, cystic, root canal thing,” he said. “I just can’t get my head around all that.”
Here I was, 8:45 in the morning, without my cereal and half cup of coffee, no paper to read, hardly awake, and he wants to know all about the Calcium Method of Osteo-Endo-Cystic Therapy. There probably aren’t five dentists in the world who understand it, let alone practice it. At home we see over 60 cases a month, but this is Mid-Missouri and he’s asking for whole bale, now. “Okay, okay,” I sighed.
So, I explained that we have to start at the beginning and work through this in an orderly manner just as we had to struggle with what we learned over the last 45 years. Then, he would grasp not only the method but the implications of using the approach and therapy in a normal dental practice, in the Midwest. That made sense and we started with his patients.
By lunch time at the talk to a small group of people at the motel conference room, which included another dentist, a chiropractor, and a couple hygienists over that Saturday lunch time. I could see their foggy minds were clearing. Our tried and true concepts of non-surgical periodontal treatments were sinking in. A couple hours later there were more answers and commentaries that kept going as we headed back to the office.
About 3:30 pm after more patients for Show and Treat, Dr. S. sat almost motionless as we returned to his initial concern, our most recent development with the calcium materials, the Calcium Method of Osteo-Endo-Cystic Therapy. Of course, he understood by that time. “It makes perfect sense. Its simplicity is striking,” he said.
“And it’s easy on everyone,” I had to say. “The patient, the dentist and the hygienist,”
I rose early Sunday and left in the morning’s chilly fog. The route I plotted out ran through more of Missouri hills and havens, over the Muddy MO, back through my childhood adventures in Sabetha, KS, and up route 75 by the Humboldt Corner. Nebraska City’s apple orchards were flooded with apples and autos loading up for winter sauce, cider, and pies. Then it was a swoop past Offutt Air Force Base and Bellevue to home and some R&R.
My recollections of that weekend again still ring true, learning as much as teaching. Any dentist doing molar root canals at Dr. S’s age is a solid professional, hard at work as a valued asset to Missouri dentistry. Add on his ability to face his own confusion, listen closely, and find ways to put unfamiliar ideas into reality at the dental chair. That is priceless. You might say much the same for people who only need to be shown where the stones are to walk on water, to help their patients, and to preserve the magic of Missouri.