At least 145 dentists will provide free dental care this weekend in Cape Girardeau.
The massive clinic will fill the Show Me Center.
Between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. this Friday and Saturday, nearly 100 dentists chairs will be available.
Dr. Jan Ruopp, a local organizer for the Missouri Mission of Mercy clinic, says the clinic fills a void.
“Of course a lot of people, especially adults, don’t have dental coverage,” Ruopp said. “They don’t have access to a dentist in their communities, and so this addresses that need.”
Ruopp says the clinic will accept any adult or child in good physical health.
“We will be doing fillings, cleanings and extractions, some root canals on younger people, front teeth only. Some partials to replace missing front teeth and those will be fabricated on site,” Ruopp said.
Ruopp says at the first Missouri Mission of Mercy clinic in Springfield in 2011, dentists saw 1,856 patients and did about $1million worth of free dental work.
The free clinic is sponsored by the Missouri Dental Association Foundation.
