keeping dirt out of front end ball joints

I've had two mechanics tell me that wether its a dry front end ball
joint or one that is enclosed in grease-

If you coat the ENTIRE assembly -the rubber boot included-with a
great big gob of grease- you will keep dirt away from the ball and
socket. They say road dirt tends to adhere to the outer surface of the
grease and since the grease is not moving around and can get into the
ball and socket surfaces- the ball joint is pretty much protected and
GOOD FOR LIFE ! As long as you don't move the grease off by washing-
you can carefully re-coat it with grease if necessary.

Three mechanics told me that grease DOES NOT degrade a dry ball joint
socket (like on Saturns)- so there is nothing to prevent you from
poking a small hole in the rubber boot and injecting grease into the
socket itself-then coating the whole thing on the outside with grease.

Anyone ever do the above or want to agree or dispute this?

 

I had one go out on my '03 Ion,real neato!