Oak Park Dental, 1616 W. McNeese St., will provide free dental care 8 a.m.-5 p.m. today during its 12th annual Free Valentine’s Day Clinic.

Drs. Harry Castle, James McGee, Cecilia Oubre and Lon Latiolais will provide a free cleaning, free filling or a free extraction on a first-come, first-served basis to residents who are unemployed or who do not have dental insurance.

The dentists will offer one service per patient — limited to the first 150 people.

“This is our way of letting people know they’re special,” Castle said Wednesday. “Valentine’s Day is the day you make someone feel special. This is our chance to show them they’re important.”

Castle said it makes his whole staff feel great to be able to do this.

“When you do things for people and take all the monetary parts away you show them that you really care about them,” he said.

The annual clinic has helped a lot of people put their right foot forward, he said.

“When people can look better they feel better,” he said. “Some people may have something wrong with their front teeth and be ashamed to go interview for a job. We try to get that fixed for them. We have helped people get jobs and be better off. They’ve said that positive things have happened to them from coming to the clinic.”

He said the clinic also gets people out of pain.

“They may not have the resources to get themselves taken care of,” he said.

Patients must be present when their numbers are called to be seen.

For more information, call 478-3232 or visit www.oakparkdental.com.

Dr. Brody Miller and talks with Elaine Burnett during Oak Park Dental’s Free Dental Care Day last year. People receive free fillings

cleaning and extractions on a first-come