Dr. Gradwell practices twice a month as the surgeon in a Harleysville, PA office with Dr. Gronki and Dr. Daschbach. Dr. Gradwell and Marlene, a dental assistant at the office, enjoy having cooking contests with each other. Yesterday, they had a chili cook off at the office which ended in a complete tie! This was their 4th cooking contest together. What will be the next thing they make for their next cook off?!
Dr. Gradwell’s medical mission trip to Malawi, Africa recently brought much joy to his life! He has been to Malawi on a medical mission trip for 4 years now and the dental clinic that Dr. Gradwell started there is progressing. However, what made this trip even more special was that his youngest daughter, Lauren, was asked to join him as a practicing Physcians Assistant. She ran her own clinic at Kalupe, one of four clinic sites that they set up for the mission trip. In all, there were 26 people who attended this years mission trip and together they saw 4500 patients to include 249 dental surgeries performed in 1 week. They took 11 bags of donated medical and dental supplies with them.
Dr. Gradwell is very proud of the dental clinic. He has worked hard to raise funds for portable dental equipment. They now have 2 dental chairs, 2 compressors and 2 dental drill sets so they can put fillings in teeth opposed to extracting them. The clinic is progressing and Dr. Gradwell will continue his efforts with his passion of mission to the people in Malawi.
Our surgical dental assistant, Heather and her family open up their home to a child from the Fresh Air Fund in New York City. This is their 4th year hosting Treece. This has been a great experience and bond. Heather’s family has a great relationship with Treece’s family and tries to have more visits throughout the year besides the week that the Fresh Air Fund offers. They go camping, to amusement parks, play in the pool, catch tadpoles in the creek and even introduced Treece to her new favorite food, pierogies! They get plenty of “fresh air” when she visits.
We love having fun with our patients in the office taking “selfies”!
On May 11th, Dr. Gradwell’s youngest daughter, Lauren, graduated from Gardner Webb University with a Masters Degree in Physician Assistant or what is commonly known as a PA. Dr. Gradwell had the honor of hooding his daughter which is a professional academic regalia. It was a very proud moment in the Gradwell family! Congratulations Lauren!
One of the biggest kept secrets in dentistry is the Mission for Mercy program or what is known as MOM in PA. This program put on by the Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) provides care to surrounding communities from where it is set up. The MOM program is done once annually in different locations and this year it was in Reading, Pennsylvania. It is one of the most well organized programs for free dental care and on this particular MOM event they treated almost 1900 peopl…e. Dr. Gradwell was honored to work there on Saturday, May 19th in the Oral Surgery department. He started at 6am and treated patients until 5pm. It was a long and exhausting day but the hugs from patients made it all worth while. This is just another way that Dr. Gradwell gives back to his community and celebrates his Christian faith and love for Dentistry. Next year you will find him in Scranton, Pennsylvania at the 2019 MOM in PA event.
Dr. Gradwell has a passion for mission in his community and abroad. He can be seen cooking at the Lehigh Conference of Church’s Daybreak and most recently traveling to Honduras in May as the Periodontist and Oral Surgeon on a medical team that originates from First Presbyterian Church of Allentown. The Honduras trip allowed Dr. Gradwell to provide care to the surrounding villages as well as teach dental techniques of periodontal surgery to the practicing dentists in the clinic at Manos Amigos in the providence of La Entrata. The group even took a walker and 2 wheelchairs for any locals that were in need of them. At the end of the day, Dr. Gradwell, will admit that the most rewarding times in his life is when he is doing mission work with his God given craft of dentistry.
In March, Dr. Gradwell received the 2018 Service Award for Distinguished Service to Improve Oral Health of the Public. He was voted by his peers from the Lehigh Valley and Montgomery Bucks Dental Societies. Dr. Gradwell was very deserving of this award for his kind heart and giving to others.
In January, Dr. Gradwell went to Las Vegas for training on the surgical technique on the Hybridge Surgical Technique. This allows patients to have fixed teeth in a turn around period of about 8 weeks. Dr. Gradwell trained with Prosthodontist, Dr. Eric Marsh of the Lehigh Valley. While they were there they had the opportunity to meet Siegfried from Siegfried & Roy.
