Patty Gleason is invested in her health.

Gleason, a resident of Colonial Beach, needed dentures. She sees a medical doctor in Fredericksburg but had nowhere to turn for oral health issues and hadn’t seen a dentist in years.

Enter the Northern Neck –Middlesex Free Health Clinic (NNMFHC), by way of the Community Services Board (CSB) for the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck. The CSB’s Community Resources Coordinator in Tappahannock brought Gleason to the NNMFHC Dental Clinic in Kilmarnock in August of 2015, and cleanings, treatment plans, extractions and impressions followed in a half dozen subsequent visits. Staff dentist Cris Dedmond, DDS, fashioned her dentures and on April 14, after lab work was returned, fitted her upper and lower dentures.

Dr. Dedmond’s “denture days” are in addition to the three days a week that he oversees six dental and hygiene students from the VCU School of Dentistry, who rotate through the Dental Clinic to help treat low-income residents in need of dental care.

Gleason is thoroughly invested in getting her dentures, and each visit was an all-day affair. She catches the Bay Transit bus at 5:45 a.m. from Colonial Beach to Oak Grove, transfers to another at 6 a.m., arrives at Warsaw at 8:30 a.m., and catches a third to the Dental Clinic in Kilmarnock, arriving at 11 a.m., she said. After her appointment she works her way in reverse back home, leaving the NNMFHC at 1:30 p.m. and arriving home around 5 p.m.

Dental assistant Terri Baldwin is shown with Patty Gleason in the NNMFHC Dental Clinic, prior to and after receiving her dentures.