Mission of Mercy Free Dental Care Event Kicks Off

Hundreds of people are getting free dental care today in Moorhead.

The Mission of Mercy is at the Concordia College Memorial Auditorium with a team of nearly 1,000 volunteers including dentists and dental assistants.

After working hard turning the floor of the auditorium into a 100 chair dentist’s office, the real work has finally begun and patients are filling up the room.

They’re performing oral surgeries like teeth extractions and root canals on a mass scale.

They’re also doing basic things like cleanings, fillings, and pediatric care.

“This is amazing, it’s just amazing. All the help they get, the volunteers, the dentists that are putting in their time for a good cause,” says Steve Klein a patient at the event.

It is pretty amazing, by the end of the day tomorrow Mission of Mercy plans to service 2,000 people.

There are 800 people outside waiting already with 400 more inside being treated, and this is all on day one.

The real magic of this event comes from the partial denture procedures.

Maria Eprez was here to have a partial denture to fill in the gap left by a previous tooth extraction.

“I was in a lot of pain. So yes they told me that they needed to extract my tooth. It was very infected so I needed to remove it. So I decided I did need to. I was kind of upset, I was going to have a missing tooth,” says Eprez.

Eprez will be able to flash her full smile now in pictures at her daughter’s upcoming wedding.

For many of these patients this is the first dental care they’ve received in years.

“Every year, I’m amazed at how much dental care is needed. A lot of us take it for granted that we have access to health care, access to dental care and so many people don’t,” says volunteer Joe Lally, Executive Director of Delta Dental.

Mission of Mercy says 950 patients were serviced today with $500,000 of care provided.

Delta Dental has donated two new dental chairs to Family Center in Moorhead to help provide continued care to the patients.

The event continues tomorrow.

People will be admitted at 5:30 am and care is provided on a first come first serve basis so be sure to show up early!