First Baptist Church is looking for a few good dentists for its free medical clinic near downtown, a key volunteer said.

“One of the biggest needs we have right now is for dentists,” Hester Pitts said during an address Wednesday to the Vicksburg Lions Club. “We have one that works with us full-time, Dr. Martin Chaney. Dr. (Brent) Thomas works when he can.”

Pitts, who has run the clinic’s lab and been an active volunteer since the church branched out into medical care in 1997, said the 60 volunteers at the once-a-week clinic “park cars and do crowd control” as often as they can. But dentistry is one area with a consistent turn-away patient load.

“I know of no other place where you can get free dental care,” Pitts said. “All we do is pull teeth. (Chaney) can see about 10 by himself. But, we have 15 to 20 people sign up that we have to turn away. There’s no place we can refer them here, so we send them to Jackson.”

“Can we have one once every three months? That would help.”

First Baptist’s free clinic was started by Dr. Daniel Edney and provides basic exams, tooth extraction, nutritional and spiritual counseling and some prescription medicines. It operates on the bottom floor of the Mafan building, at 1315 Adams St., on the third Thursday of each month. The clinic is directed at the working poor, specifically those up to 150 percent of the poverty level.

After nearly 18 years in operation, lines at the clinic are shorter thanks to stricter requirements put in place about five years ago for those seeking care. First-time patients are seen for free, Pitts said, and River Region Medical Center offers free lab work for indigent patients referred by the FBC clinic. The Social Security Administration office has provided forms that are stamped to show whether a patient is receiving benefits, which a patient must return for each visit, Pitts said.

“The first night, we had 138 patients,” Pitts said. “It was too many for us to handle. Now, we’re down to about 80 patients. That’s about how many we are able to handle effectively.”

“We feel like we’re helping the ones God wants us to help,” she said. “Do some get through? Yes, but that’s not for us to worry about. So, we’re doing the best we can.”

Prescriptions in current clinic records total about 500, Pitts said. They’re paid for by networks that pick up the cost for medicines made available to low-income patients by free clinics like FBC’s. Financial assistance is also available to patients through aid plans offered by pharmaceutical companies.

Narcotic medications, such as pain meds often prescribed after surgeries of all kinds, are not distributed, Pitts said. When turned into the church, she added, they’re then turned over to a similarly free clinic offered by Good Shepherd Community Center.

“We have a box at First Baptist,” Pitts said. “We prefer you take a magic marker and scratch out your name. We don’t release any medication until it’s checked by the pharmacist. We don’t write prescriptions for any narcotics.”