After hosting the Missions of Mercy (MOM) Dental Clinic for the past three years, Gloucester has relinquished hosting the event this year so that another area in need could be served.

Residents who are patients with the Gloucester-Mathews Free Clinic can still take advantage of cheaper dental services through that organization.

Hayes dentist Chuck Harris, who served as local coordinator of MOM, said individual localities have no control over where the free dental clinics are held each year. Localities apply to the Virginia Dental Association Foundation, which looks over various criteria such as how many dentists there are in an area and the population of that area.

"They get applications from all over the state," Harris said. "We’ve had it three years in a row and I was asked if we would relinquish it this year because there were other areas in need."

This year, the Charlottesville area will take Gloucester’s place on April 20, and there will also be seven other MOM clinics throughout the state this year: Northern Virginia, March 15-16; Richmond, June 8; Virginia State University, Petersburg, June 15; Wise, July 19-22; Roanoke, Sept. 13-14 and Grundy, Oct. 6-7. There will also be another MOM clinic in Richmond to help the homeless sometime in November, Harris added.

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