AUBURN – Crystal Thibeault was nervous Friday as she sat on her fiancé’s lap in a waiting room jammed with dozens of people trading “excuse me’s.”

The 20-year-old had never been to the dentist before.

“I’ve never even seen what a dentist’s chair looks like,” she said.

Growing up, her parents didn’t have the money to send her. She’s started to worry about her wisdom teeth.

She and fiancé Dan Sheppard got in line outside Advanced Dentistry at 7 a.m. Friday. Despite the light snow, the line started forming at 5.

For the last four years, Dr. Robert Limoges has opened up his practice the Friday before Valentine’s Day for “Dentistry with a Heart,” free service on a first-come, first-serve basis. He, Dr. Kevin Connelly and staff donate their time. They saw 80 patients and did $22,000 worth of work last year.

This year, for the first time, he recruited Scott Bernardy at Riverview Dental Associates in Auburn and Maurice Convey at Oxford Hills Dental Associates to join with their practices.

It’s about giving back to the community, Limoges said. “The second patient this morning, I got a huge hug.”

At 8:30 a.m., staff counted 77 people. Inside, past the counter, assistants took basic information: medical history, blood pressure, does anything hurt?

Marie Hebert of Greene stood outside with her son, Joe, under an awning. Joe wanted a cleaning and help with a broken front tooth. He lost dental coverage when he turned 18; Joe’s going to be 24 next month. Hebert said she’d been warned ahead of time there’d be a long wait. That was OK.

“I’ll wait here as long as I have to,” she said. “It’s unbelievable. We’re going to thank them a million times.”

Dennis Chadwick of Lewiston, 47, stood in line a few people behind them. He had the hood on his olive green coat pulled tight around his face to keep warm. His last dental visit was a few years ago.

“Isn’t that a wonderful thing to have ‘free’ next to anything today?” he said. “They do this every year and I’ve known about it. This was the first time I’ve been able to make it. I thought I’ll take my chances.”

As one person came out the door, three or four more struggled to squeeze inside.

By the end of the day, Advanced Dentistry had seen 71 patients and performed more than $21,500 in work.

Four oral surgeons – Charles Palian, Bruce Gallup, Terry Wang and Brian Gallagher – also donated services for 16 extractions. Two sets of dentures from Auburn Denture Center had also been given away.