The Colorado Mission of Mercy will stage a two-day dental clinic on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 in the Event Center at Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley.All services are free at the organization’s 12th annual event.With 125 portable dental chairs in operation, the clinic is designed to serve adults, elderly and children who can’t afford dental care, but organizers say no questions will be asked on that front.Services can include cleanings, fillings, root canal treatments, extractions and, under the right circumstances, more.More than 200 dentists, most from Colorado, will donate their services over the two days, and be joined by more than 1,000 similarly volunteering dental hygienists, assistants, lab technicians and others.Pam Dinkfelt is the Colorado Mission of Mercy executive director and has been with the organization since 2009.”We have provided 14,000 patients with $12 million worth of care,” Dinkfelt said the other day. “In Greeley, we’re going to take care of at least 1,300 patients.” The clinic will open each morning at 6. Once capacity is reached, the doors will be shut again, and officials note that could happen early in the day.Potential patients can line up the night before, and Dinkfelt emphasized that any waits will be in a sheltered, warm environment in a building adjacent to the Event Center. “They’re not going to be out in the cold,” Dinkfelt said.Because services will be on a first-come, first-served basis, the waits likely will be long and visitors are advised to bring snacks, water, reading material or other means of passing time. It’s conceivable that not all seeking care will be served, but the goal is to avoid that.

“We want to be able to take care of as many patients as we can,” Dinkfelt said. “At the moment, we have 215 dentists, so we have a volunteer army ready to take care of them. . . It’s kind of like an algorithm. You look at the amount of people in line and how many dentists are available. Our goal is to treat everybody in line.”The list of what’s not available is extractions of wisdom teeth, tooth implants and root canal treatment of molars. Each patient will receive blood pressure testing and those with a history of diabetes will undergo glucose testing. If levels are too high, patients can’t be treated. Children must be accompanied by an adult to receive treatment. For patients with multiple issues, treatment will be prioritized and patients initially will receive their first-priority treatment and then additional treatment based on availability.That’s the fine print.Otherwise, officials emphasize that “no questions asked” approach.

The Colorado Mission of Mercy event rotates around the state. The most recent sites were Pueblo (2017), Brush (2016), Canon City (2015), Henderson (2014) and, yes, Greeley (2013).The 2019 site will be Glenwood Springs, with the goal that the “Western Slope Colorado Mission of Mercy” will draw from as far away as Grand Junction.”You look at the number of dentists per thousand,” Dinkfelt said. “In Brush in 2014, there were 14 licensed dentists in the county and not all of those dentists were working full time and some were retired. So we try to go to communities that don’t have a large number of dentists and we look at what is the general median household income /poverty level and unemployment. So it’s a combination of access to dental care and financial need.”The anticipation, of course, is that this clinic will draw from beyond the Greeley area, from the rest of Weld County and into Larimer County and Morgan County.The undertaking is monumental, regardless of the site, given the need to set up the chairs and equipment, with power and water at each station.The genesis of the Colorado Mission of Mercy clinic goes back to an America’s Dentist Care Foundation.”They started this initiative state by state,” Dinkfelt said. “A group of our dentists from Colorado went to visit other ‘MOMs’ in other states and thought it was a good thing to do. With their support, they facilitated COMOM coming into being.”[swift-infobox title=”Colorado Mission of Mercy”]What: Free dental clinicWhere: Event Center, Island Grove Regional Park, 501 North 14th Ave., Greeley.When: Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3. Doors open 6 a.m. each day, close when capacity is reached.Web site: www.COMOM.org[/swift-infobox]In a COMOM video with clips of previous clinics, Dr. John Hanck of Fort Collins notes that the clinic is “for people that have often been putting off their care in order to take care of their children. In the economic situation that we’re dealing with, putting food on their table, clothing on their kids, transportation to the job or several jobs, there’s no money left for dentistry. So they just suffer. This is an opportunity to remove suffering that these people have been with for years. . .”We work for hugs. We get a lot of hugs. There’s a hug quotient we have here, and it’s very high. There are a lot of people who really appreciate and understand what we’re doing for them.”The Colorado Dental Association backs the initiative.Molly Pereira, the CDA’s associate executive director for operations, has been with the organization since 2007.”I see some of the same families come year after year,” she said of The Colorado Mission of Mercy. “I’ll recognize people who have been to other COMOMs in other far-away counties and cities. It’s interesting to me how far people will travel for a dental appointment when they truly need the help.”She said the dentists attending varies, based on geography – but only to a point.”We definitely have a faithful following,” she said. “You’ll see people that are wearing a scrub top that says ‘5 years’ or ’10 years,’ and that’s how many years they’ve served. So you do have a lot of the same. But when you’re in an area where it’s your community being helped, then we get fresh volunteers or volunteers able to join us because of location. They’re helping their communities in more ways that one. They’re obviously a community dentist but they’re providing free care to support this effort, too.”For more information, including how to make a donation to support the Mission of Mercy, visit the organization’s web site: http://comom.org/– Terry Frei writes features and columns for The Tribune. He’s the author of seven books, including the novels “Olympic Affair” and “The Witch’s Season.” He can be reached at (970) 392-4424 or tfrei@greeleytribune.com. His website is http://www.terryfrei.com. Twitter: @tfrei