Anyway, I feel ya. I lucked out on my teeth but I didn't see a dentist for 15 years and when I did I had a dead tooth and some root canals to be done.
There were no universities near me that offered treatment and believe me, that was one of the first things I tried. You were lucky that you had the opportunity to get that free treatment; an option I didn't have. I'm sorry your parent had to deal with cancer, thankfully that's one way my parents have been lucky so far in.
And there is no reason to be sorry for anything I went through. As bizarre as it is, I would not have had my life any other way and I doubt even my parent would have. No doubt as a part of the cancer it caused them to reevaluate their life and after I had gone off to college they started taking night classes at a community college for nursing, and succeeded and have now worked their way up to very comfortable middle class, starting with little more than a high school degree in their late 30s. Also caused them to catch the Jesus a bit hard, but hey if it completes their life then more power to them.
You don't find these reasons compelling because you can't seem to understand that a lot of options are entirely circumstancial. For people that even do have the option to take a bus, you're effectively asking them to lose their job or stop taking care of their family for possibly an entire day. An option a lot of people don't have when they live paycheck to paycheck.
The beautiful thing about this country is that there are practically infinite possibilities and opportunities. Obtaining them can often involve a good deal of blood, sweat, and tears - but they're there. That's the thing that I find frustrating - sayings like 'when opportunity knocks' are idiotic. Opportunity doesn't knock. It's something that must be aggressively sought out, captured, and then chased after once it escapes which it frequently will - like tricky little bastard it is. People seem to believe that others just have things happen for them, or that they were born into fortunate circumstance. In some cases that's true. In the vast majority, it is not. Things are not given, they are taken.
My bottom was having very little money in my name, with parents that were poor and disabled as a result of the hardships of being fishermen. I had barely enough to take care of my family and go to college (with financial aid) as a result of other very personal circumstances. Even then, I had to make a choice.
I could either spend some of that money on my failing health and never graduate from college, or focus on my education and hope I can fix it later. I went with the latter. Financial aid can only go so far when you're one medical issue away from disaster.
When I finally got a career I had to have multiple rotting and infected teeth extracted because I couldn't afford to get them fixed prior. My family had a history of bad dental issues and I managed to hit it hard.
This is what I mean by the bottom. If my dental issues had gotten worse, then I would've been screwed. This is the reality for a lot of people that grow up in poverty. It doesn't necessarily matter if we can get financial aid when there are other circumstances stopping us, affecting our education or worse.