For 35 years, Dr. Randy Lazear has served the dental needs of Springfield residents, forming lasting bonds and building a practice that has seen multiple generations come through its doors. For the last 10 years, however, he has broadened his reach, bringing his expertise to those who need it most.

Lazear has participated in Remote Area Medical and the Virginia Dental Association’s Missions of Mercy project in Wise, Va. each summer for a decade, joining hundreds of other dentists to provide free dental care to the impoverished and uninsured of southwestern Virginia. In those 10 years, the Missions of Mercy projects have accounted for $8.2 million in free health care, given to nearly 13,000 patients.

“It’s something I look forward to every year,” Lazear said. “I’m helping people who really need it, and there’s a sense of belonging, being on the team that provides the service. There’s just a general good feeling down there.”

Lazear, an avid pilot, joined the Missions of Mercy team in 1999, when he spotted a story about remote medical care in North Carolina in an aviation magazine. Though he had heard about programs like it before, this one introduced the concept of mobile dental equipment, which allowed dentists to do more than just cleanings and extractions. Shortly after reading the article, Lazear signed onto the program, and within months, found himself in an airplane hangar in Wise with more than 2,000 people waiting in line for his services.

“The story in the flying magazine caught my attention,” said Lazear, who has also given free dental care to residents of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “I was familiar with projects like it overseas and in South America, but they only did extractions. This one caught my attention because they were using mobile equipment to do fillings, which is my area of focus.”

Each year, Lazear’s wife Vickie, a dental hygienist at his office, accompanies him on the trip to serve as an assistant. Lazear said that the family flies down in their plane to the Wise airport and then camps out for the two days at the Wise County Fairgrounds, where the free clinic operates. That way, he said, they do not have to travel to the site, allowing them to serve as many patients as possible.

“It’s such a different experience than doing dentistry in the office,” Vickie Lazear said. “It’s an adventure just to get there, and then we camp out for two days.”

Both days, Randy Lazear starts working at 6 a.m. and does not stop until the clinic closes down at 5 p.m., seeing one patient after another. The dentist said that the first year, he arrived at 6 a.m. to find more than 2,000 people lined up waiting to be served. Upon entry, the patient goes through a triage, where their dental issues are identified, and since not enough time is available to fix every problem, the most serious problems are chosen for work. Then, the patient is escorted to one of the dentists and receives the dental work.

“It’s not a substitute for comprehensive dental care, but we’re just trying to take care of immediate needs,” Randy Lazear said.

The setup, Randy Lazear said, while very organized, is still a challenge because it is much different than working in a traditional office. In addition to the rapid-fire nature of the dental work, the equipment, since it is all mobile, does not work as smoothly as office equipment. He said that the equipment turns off occasionally and needs to be fixed, and instead of a high-powered dental light, they have to make due with extendable lights. At to that the fact that the people receiving the care more often than not have never received any dental care, and the experience becomes quite challenging at times.

“Working in conditions that are less than ideal is challenging,” Lazear said. “Everything is a little harder. The equipment sometimes has problems, and when it rains, cords and wires need to be covered up, but I’m glad to be a part of it.”

In addition to filling Randy Lazear and his wife with pride and satisfaction from helping those in need, the missions have also served to expand the dentist’s practice. For the first few years that Randy Lazear participated, his son Michael, in high school at the time, would make the trip as well. Randy Lazear said that his son would serve as an assistant with the patients and would also help escort oral surgery patients around the clinic after their treatment. After graduating from college, Michael Lazear, citing the Wise missions, decided to enroll in dental school and join the family business.

“It was very instrumental in me going to dental school,” said Michael Lazear, now a dentist at his father’s practice. “It was an amazing site to see all of the people who were waiting in line all night and to see everyone so thankful [for the work]. It really was a heartwarming experience.”

Though Michael Lazear has not joined his parents on the trip in seven years, he said that he plans to make the trip next summer. In addition to the event in Wise, Randy Lazear said that he will also be taking part in other Missions of Mercy dental clinics around the state, which take place throughout the year in locations such as Grundy and Saluda. Attending as many missions as possible is the goal, Randy Lazear said, as far too many people do not receive the dental care they need.

“We feel like we’re making a small dent in the problem,” Randy Lazear said. “Doing a filling or two won’t solve all their problems if they need a whole new set of teeth, but we try to help them as best we can. Nobody should have to live in pain.”

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