RAM Clinic Provides Woman’s Smile For Life

WISE, Va. – It’s difficult to explain the meaning of a smile.

For 31-year-old Melanie Locke, a smile will be enough to change her life.

“I’ll be a new person,” said Locke, who drove seven hours from Martinsburg, W.Va., so she could be fitted for dentures at the Remote Area Medical clinic on Friday.

“I’ll have a smile with some pretty teeth, and I can’t remember how long it’s been since I had nice teeth,” she said.

Locke’s dental history is a long one.

As a child she needed surgery to correct a cleft palate, and assistance was available to pay for the care that her mother – a single mom of three – could not afford despite working two or three jobs at a time.

Locke said she also had additional dental care provided during her childhood, but because of genetics, her teeth have soft enamel and have also been affected by anesthesia used during childhood surgeries.

At the age of 18, Locke’s access to free dental care was cut off, and though she contributed to supporting the family by helping her mother clean houses, the cost of visiting a dentist was out of reach.

Unable to afford to have decaying teeth pulled, she simply suffered through the pain, which eventually became so unbearable she was unable to work.

“[I had] just a lot of toothaches, abscesses, just constantly taking pain pills ... because it was cheaper than going to a doctor I couldn’t afford,” she recalled. “Then I guess I just started getting used to it, dealt with it like it was another day.”

Her husband, Kevin Kilmer, said the family put back tax refund money to pay for Locke’s dental care, but it was never enough.

“Our tax money from the last three or four years, that money was dedicated for her,” Kilmer said. “Every time we would get that money every year, we would say, ‘Time to go to the dentist.’ ”

Locke said lack of dental care means more than just ugly teeth – it means pain, infection and limited nutrition. It means being too embarrassed to smile.

After suffering more than a decade, she went to a RAM clinic in West Virginia where she had the painful teeth extracted and was fitted for half a set of dentures. She drove to the Wise County fairgrounds for the other half, and the mother of four will leave this weekend with a smile.

Michael Clark, a volunteer from Fredericksburg, Va., was helping Locke with her dentures on Friday. He said such a set would normally cost $6,000, which doesn’t include the cost of having teeth extracted.

Greg Gray, who also came from Fredericksburg to volunteer his time, said the denture lab will probably be able to provide 10 full sets of dentures and 10 partial dentures during the weekend for a handful of lucky people.

“Essentially, we’re putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound,” Gray said. “We’re not going to get it all done, we never will, but you have to do something.”

For the lucky few walking away with a new set of teeth, the volunteers’ efforts will have a life-changing impact.

Kilmer said his wife’s dentures also will have a profound effect on their entire family.

“She’s happy now,” he said. “So if you’re always happy now instead of being down in the dumps and in pain, now she wants to go out more ... with the kids, more social activities now, you’re enjoying life ... we always have, but it’s always been limited.”

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