I nearly fainted when the dentist told me what he’d just done for the patient who had sat in his chair at the Suffolk National Guard Armory on Saturday.

The patient, 58-year-old George Norfleet, had a mouth full of gauze as he approached me, and I was hesitant to bother him. He’d been in a dental treatment chair for most of the time that I was in the armory, and I figured he’d probably want to go home and directly to bed.

Of course, I was projecting. My own history of dental treatment has not been pretty, as my teeth have required frequent and often painful treatment ever since I was a boy. Broken teeth that needed mending, cavities, root canals, crowns, scraping, cleaning — I’m sure I’ve financed more than one dentist’s boat in my 47 years.

So the story I was covering on Saturday was a touchy subject from the start.

Dozens of volunteers had come to the armory in Suffolk to provide free dental treatment for more than 100 people who could not afford to get it themselves. Using equipment brought to the site by Pankey Institute through the generosity of the Oral Health Improvement Coalition of South Hampton Roads and the Obici Healthcare Foundation, they expected to provide more than $100,000 worth of dental care during the two-day event.

There were patients from all walks of life and with all manner of dental problems. Some had never been to a dentist before.

So it was with Mr. Norfleet, who was glad to talk with me, despite the fact that he’d just had all his lower teeth extracted. I had to strain to understand him as he spoke to me around the gauze that he’d been given to help staunch the bleeding. But he told me that his lower teeth had rotted, and the dentist had told him they all had to go.

I glanced around for something to hold onto.

Friends had told Mr. Norfleet that whatever the dentist did to him would hurt. He’d come to the event, anyway, and he seemed pleased to inform me that he hadn’t felt anything after he’d been given the shot in his mouth.

By this time, I was feeling seriously ill. But Mr. Norfleet seemed just fine.

When I told one of the dentists at the event about my own fears, he said he understood. And then he made an interesting point: For most of us, when we get a bad toothache, we go to the dentist. We might not like it; we might even be a bit afraid of the treatment that awaits us. But we finally go, because we know we can get relief if we just push past the fear.

For folks like Mr. Norfleet, there’s usually no choice. Dental treatment is expensive, and not everyone has insurance to help pay for it. Some people just have to deal with the pain, live with rotting teeth or get used to the gaps left in their mouths by teeth that are lost.

The Dental Access Days gave at least some of those people in Suffolk welcome relief.

I might have felt a little sick upon leaving the armory on Saturday, but Mr. Norfleet and the other patients who got free dental treatments had a lot to smile about.