Thousands line up in Perry for free dental care
It’s loud, it’s packed, but everyone at the clinic says it’s worth it.
“I can’t really say a whole lot more. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to feel both my front teeth,” Jason Roberts, a patient, said laughing.
He’s one of thousands who waited since before 5 a.m. Friday to get dentists to check out their pearly whites.
“What you get out of it is, just the gratitude of the patients,” Dr. Jimmy Cassidy, the co-chair of the Georgia Mission of Mercy, said.
Organizers with GMOM put on the free dental clinic with help from hundreds of doctors. “The rest are community volunteers. People from all over Middle Georgia and really all over the state of Georgia,” Cassidy said.
A total of 1204 volunteers — including one who’s on her way to dental school.
“I felt like I was really missing something and I wasn’t providing care and doing something that I really wanted to do. So I went back to do dentistry. It’s my second career and I’ll start in the fall,” Megan Rihan said.
Once patients get through their wait, there’s a system , they go through all of these different stations to where they get fillings, cleanings, everything that they need to leave with a perfect smile and then at the end of it all they leave finding a dental home.
You need it? It’s there: x-rays, fillings, even dental surgery all done free of charge. Planners say fundraising the $400,000 to put on the clinic was easy.
“80% of all the money we raised comes from dentists. To me that’s amazing,” Cassidy said.
Jason felt the same way and didn’t hesitate to smile.
“I don’t even know what it would cost if I had to pay for it. It was great. If I need something else done, I’ll definitely come back and do it again,” he said.
Some dentists closed their practice to come participate in the free clinic.
Basic dental services will be offered to low and no-income adults including cleanings, filling and extractions. The 100-chair clinic is at the Georgia National Fairgrounds on June 19-20 and doors open at 5 a.m. on a first come, first serve basis.
Leave a Reply