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Regional | Christmas

Free dental treatments to spread the Christmas cheer

A Napier dental surgery is doing its bit to lighten the load this Christmas, by opening its clinic to a day of free dental treatments for as many people as they could see in a day. Hundreds lined the block waiting for their turn.

Hundreds of people got up early to get their place in the queue, driving from across the country, and some even camping out overnight.

“It’s a small price to pay for about $300 worth of treatment” says Nathan Hutley who arrived at 5:15am in morning.

“We would never have been able to afford anything like this so it's an awesome opportunity and awesome to these dentists” says Sharne Repia.

“I just wanted to get this toothache out of the way it's been painting me for a while and I thought what a good idea to get it done while it's free” says Eugene Toko.

Because of the sheer volume of people, only emergency dental work to relieve pain could be performed, like pulling out teeth and fillings.

Regardless of the pain Whitney Olsen was glad to have her problem sorted, “My mouth isn't feeling that good right now. I've had a tooth pulled out but I'm just so thankful to the staff here.”

The two dentists performing all the work, have their work cut out for them, seeing around five patients between them every half hour.

For dentist Gary Winter it was his way of giving back to the community, “We see people in need and it’s one way of helping some people have a comfortable Christmas.

Garth Forbes the other dentist who perform procedures said all the staff were there on a voluntary basis as well, “Well it's entirely voluntary they don't have to do it and everyone gets a real good buzz out of it.”

Clients were asked to bring in canned food so that it could be donated as a way of returning the Christmas cheer.