MARYVILLE, Tennessee — Hundreds of people camped out near the RAM Clinic in Maryville on Friday night.
The clinic's doors opened at 6 a.m. on Saturday offering free medical care, women's healthcare, vision and dental care to anybody who needed it.
RAM's health clinic operated on a first-come, first-served basis, people parked nearby since mid-afternoon on Friday.
Dr. Ethan Long is a dentist who started volunteering for RAM 13 years ago. He said the clinic helped him realize he wanted to be a dentist.
"I kind of made a promise to myself, since RAM had helped solidify that passion in dentistry for me," Long said. "It would be something I would continue to do whenever I became a licensed professional."
Dr. Long said he sees patients who deal with toothaches for months and the clinic helps them ease their pain.
"I've had plenty instances where patients have broken down in tears after we've done an extraction thanking us, saying you know how long they've been in pain," Long said. "A lot of times, patients will say that a toothache has felt worse than childbirth has."
Tiffany Moore and her husband arrived in Maryville for the RAM clinic on Friday afternoon. Moore said her eyes had been hurting for months, causing migraine headaches every other day.
"Having a migraine every other day is stressful," Moore said. "Especially with the four kids and the husband."
Eye doctors at the RAM clinic thought Moore's eyesight caused her migraine headaches and prescribed glasses for her. The clinic had facilities to make her glasses within one hour.
The clinic continues on Sunday, offering medical, dental and vision services, again operating on a first-come, first-served basis. According to the RAM Facebook page, dental services for Sunday are full. It is being held in the Everrett Recreation Center.
Since its founding in 195, RAM has served 863,700 people, providing almost $200 million in free care.