A clinic that provides free dental services to those in need performed more than $100,000 worth of procedures to about 100 people at an event in Evanston earlier this month, according to a news release.

Dental Access Days, a two-day clinic in its sixth year in the Chicago area, was held Sept. 5 to 6 this year and offered cleanings, fillings, extractions and partial dentures. Residents from Evanston and nearby areas who were identified by social service agencies as the most in need for treatments were given priority. According to the American Dental Association, a lack of insurance, transportation or finances contributes to unstable dental health.

According to the Dental Access Days’ website, the event provided $111,000 worth of services, compared with $95,600 worth of services in 2013.

More than 60 volunteers from the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club transformed the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., into a 10-chair clinic with enough equipment for local dentists and hygienists to perform the procedures. It cost about $8,000 to put on the two-day clinic, according to the Dental Access Days website.

The Giving Hand Foundation and the Pankey Institute, both nonprofit organizations, originally funded Dental Access Days and first partnered with Evanston in 2008. However, the first Evanston clinic was held in 2010.

“Maintaining good oral health is not only essential to our day-to-day comfort, it can prevent future, more serious dental problems and reduce other health risks, like diabetes,” Evanston Health Department director Evonda Thomas-Smith said in a news release.

During the weekend clinics, one woman came to the clinic with her top three front teeth missing, and the volunteer dentists were able to create partial dentures for her.

“When they put the partial into her mouth and she looked in the mirror for the first time … well you can guess what happened,” said Bill McKinley, the director of operations for Dental Access Days, in a news release. “It was a touching moment for everyone, volunteers and patients alike.”

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