A variety of frames are available after getting an eye exam Dec. 6, 2025, at the free pop-up clinic offering dental, vision and medical services held at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Rosie Peters of Slatington gets a tooth extraction by Dr. Jack Yacoub of Allentown Dec. 6, 2025, at the free pop-up clinic offering dental, vision and medical services held at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call
Volunteer optomotrists give eye examinations Dec. 6, 2025, at the free pop-up clinic offering dental, vision and medical services held at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Optomotrist Dr. Ed Zikoski of Montgomery County, gives Sean Griffith of Bethlehem an eye examination Dec. 6, 2025, at the free pop-up clinic offering dental, vision and medical services held at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Sarita Arteaga, professor and associate dean of students at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, along with 20 of her students, and three faculty members volunteer on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, at the free pop-up dental clinic held at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
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A variety of frames are available after getting an eye exam Dec. 6, 2025, at the free pop-up clinic offering dental, vision and medical services held at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Rosie Peters donned an Eagles sweatshirt and rhinestone flats and drove from Slatington to Bethlehem at 5 a.m. Saturday to have a tooth pulled at the free pop-up Remote Area Medical clinic at Northeast Middle School.
Peters was 41st in line when she arrived for the clinic, which opened at 6 a.m. By 9:30, Peters was feeling the relief of having a painful tooth replaced by clean gauze, and she planned to come back Sunday to get a new pair of glasses.
Remote Area Medical offers free care at pop-up clinics around the country. Its Lehigh Valley clinic continues Sunday; the parking lot opens at midnight and doors open at 6 a.m.
Seventy percent of RAM clinic patients seek dental services, said RAM Media Relations Coordinator Allison McCauley-Cook. The clinic offers dental, vision and medical care, and typically asks patients to choose between dental and vision due to providers’ time constraints.
Peters, who estimated that her Medicare premiums take up one-third of her monthly Social Security income, has no dental coverage.
“I can’t afford to go to the dentist,” Peters said. “It’s so expensive.”
Since RAM first came to the Lehigh Valley three years ago, Peters has attended each clinic. She got another tooth pulled three years ago, and received a pair of glasses last year. She does have vision coverage but still must pay $250 for glasses. At the RAM clinic, she can walk out with a free pair.
“I liked them because they actually had magnets here,” Peters said, pointing to the corners of her frames to describe her last pair of RAM eyeglasses, “and then they had a clip-on sunglass over top.”
Bifocals and children’s frames are mailed to patients within a month, but all other eyeglasses in the clinic’s stock are available for patients to take home that day.
Emmaus resident Joel Pena was back in line at 10 a.m., hoping to replace his broken lens. He’d arrived at the clinic at 3:30 a.m. and had already received a teeth cleaning. It’d been two years since he’d been to the dentist, Pena said, and a year or two since his last eye exam.
“It’s a really good idea to help people who need it,” Pena said. “Without this, a lot of people suffer — no dental, no vision, no medical.”
The line for Saturday’s clinic started forming at 11 p.m. Friday, McCauley-Cook said.
Last year’s Lehigh Valley clinic served 245 patients and provided over $100,000 worth of care, said Monica Georges, executive director of Global Hope International, a nonprofit headquartered in Lower Nazareth Township that is partnering with RAM to bring the clinic to the Lehigh Valley.
Lehigh County had 18,445 uninsured residents between the ages of 18 and 64 and Northampton County had 12,005, according to 2023 data from the National Institutes of Health. Those with medical coverage often lack dental and vision coverage, and premiums for all coverage are rising.
Tax credits that help cover the cost of insurance bought through Pennsylvania’s online marketplace are set to expire at the end of the month. Lehigh County monthly premiums are projected to rise about $330, or 205%, while Northampton County costs are estimated to increase $317, according to the state Insurance Department.
The fact that so many people are uninsured, particularly for dental needs, means clinic providers see a lot of end-stage treatments such as extractions and larger restorations, said Sarita Arteaga, associate dean for students at the University of Connecticut dental school.
Arteaga was one of three supervising professors overseeing 20 UConn dental students who were helping staff the stations set up in the Northeast gym. The third and fourth-year students were getting a firsthand look at what community needs are, Arteaga said.
“Dental care gets pushed aside until it hurts,” Arteaga said, adding that many choose to ignore or delay treatment, especially if the affected tooth is not a front tooth.
“This is still a need, unfortunately,” Arteaga said.
Local providers, such as Dieruff High graduate and Lehigh Valley hospital resident Jack Yacoub, who treated Peters, were also on-hand to staff the clinic’s 20 dental stations, as well as the vision exam area on the auditorium stage and the upstairs medical assessment room.
More than 200 people total staff the clinic, with only three being paid RAM employees. Peters said “how wonderful it is that so many people volunteer, and they’re happy to do it. And some of them go from state to state.”
RAM is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and its staff loaded up a semi truck with all the dental chairs, eye exam equipment and other clinic needs. Lehigh Valley Health Network provided a mammogram bus. That bus served 40 patients last year, McCauley-Cook said.
Other partners including the United Way, the Life Church, B. Braun, Olympus, Star Community Health and Highmark Healthcare, provided funding, Georges said. The clinic aims to connect patients with follow-up care through Star Community Heath and Valley Health Partners, she added.
After serving in locations around the world, Global Hope International realized “it would be great to have the same services brought to our community,” Georges said.
RAM has put on a total of 1,650 clinics in their 40 years of operation, McCauley-Cook said. This year the organization served its millionth patient, and clinic locations have spanned 42 states and 30 countries.