Those essentials, though, can be life-changing. One patient he saw recently was on dialysis, unable to receive a kidney transplant without functional teeth. “She won’t get her kidney unless she has a set she can wear,” Rempel says. “She did get a set last year [from another source], but she can’t wear what they built her. So she’s still high and dry waiting on the list.”He pauses, letting that settle. “Physically, for the whole body, dental care makes a big difference. There’s no life in dialysis three times a week.” The work, though critical, is exhausting. Rempel only gets down to Pine Ridge once a month now. “I also work in the state  prison system providing dental work to around a thousand patients between two prisons,” he explains. “The need is great and requires a lot of time. With the exception of another dentist, there is no other primary dentist.”Still, Pine Ridge stays with him.“You just have to honor those [open doors] and walk through them,” he says. “They didn’t have to drag me.”Much of what makes this clinic function is the trust earned over time in a community that’s seen plenty of outsiders come and go.