Mission of Mercy to bring free dental care to about 2,000 people at Lee Civic Center

Imagine a symphony performing at Lee Civic Center. Only instead of tuba players and flutists, you’ll have dentists. Lots and lots of dentists.

Plus an “audience” of about 2,000 dental patients and the melodious sounds of whirring dental drills.

Imagine that, and you’ll have a good idea of the organization and planning needed to put on the Florida Mission of Mercy clinic on Friday and Saturday, March 9-10.

“There’s a lot happening,” says Tampa dentist Christopher Bulnes, co-chairman for the Southwest Florida event. “And you have to get those patients moving through.”

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The sprawling event will offer free dental care to anyone who shows up. About 250 dentists, 50 hygienists and 1,500 volunteers will be there to help people with extractions, cleanings, fillings, restorative surgery, root canals and more.

“It’s a massive effort to try to eliminate disease and pain for these folks,” Bulnes says. “Access to care is something that every dentist believes in.”

To prepare for the event, two semi trucks will arrive this week from out of state, says Fort Myers dentist Bill Truax, chairman of volunteers for the event. They’ll be carrying 100 light-weight dental chairs, plus dental hand tools, autoclaves, vacuum units and other necessities.

Patients will arrive at the civic center, check in, go through triage and then get sent to one of five different sections, including cleaning, root canals and extraction.

Everybody’s working together — dentists, dental assistants, hygienists and other volunteers — to make everything run smoothly and quickly. All to the tune of an estimated 100 patients an hour.

“It’s quite loud,” says Truax, who has volunteered at previous Florida Mission of Mercy events. “But it’s surprisingly well-organized. It’s not really a zoo. Everybody’s got their job to do."

The event also includes education stations so people know how to maintain their dental work and prevent future problems, Bulnes says. “We know we can’t drill our way out of these problems."

It’s all part of the Florida Dental Association’s Florida Mission of Mercy program, a spin-off of the national nonprofit Mission of Mercy program that holds events all over the country. This will be the Florida program’s fourth-annual event. Previous ones have been held in Tampa, Pensacola and Jacksonville.

This year, they decided to bring the event to Lee County.

“There’s a great opportunity in Lee County,” Bulnes explains, “and a great need.”

After all, that’s why Truax founded his own free dental clinic, Project Dentists Care, in Lee County more than two decades ago. The clinic sees about 100 to 130 patients a month, he says, but it’s still not reaching everybody.

“We’ve got patients coming out of our ears at Project Dentists Care,” he says. “If you can’t afford dentistry, there’s no place (else) to go.”

The Florida Mission of Mercy event is aimed at residents of Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties, but Truax says they’ll take anybody. Some patients are coming from as far away as Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

“Mission of Mercy fills the gap for people who can’t get service anywhere else,” Truax says.

Mission of Mercy will operate from 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Lee Civic Center, 11831 Bayshore Road, North Fort Myers. Treatment is first-come, first-served.

There aren’t any financial requirements, either. All you have to do is show up.

The event costs about $200,000 to $300,000 to put on, Truax says, and a lot of that comes from donations from dentists and local organizations and businesses, including Regions Bank, Rotary Club of Downtown Fort Myers, United Way and the Southwest Florida Community Foundation.

To volunteer, call 850-350-7161. For more information, visit Flamom.org.

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells (Facebook), @charlesrunnells (Twitter), @crunnells1 (Instagram)