Kimberly and her newborn son.
Dientes Community Dental Care’s shift from a part-time dental clinic to full-time in Santa Cruz’s Beach Flats neighborhood enabled more than 700 low-income patients to visit the dentist in just eight months.
In September 2018, Dientes was able to expand their Beach Flats clinic days due to the generous support of Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente.
According to the Oral Health Access Santa Cruz County Strategic Plan, only 31% of Medi-Cal patients can access a dentist in the county, making the demand for dental care extremely high.
Because of this difficulty of finding consistent dental care, or a dental home, many patients need extensive treatment to improve their oral health.
Dientes has provided that and more, crossing the 2,500-visit milestone in their Beach Flats clinic.
“Before we were open as a full-time clinic, it was difficult to fit patients in to complete all the care they needed.” Beach Flats Clinic Manager, Nicole Mello, commented. “Now that we are open four days a week, we have been able to help patients finish their treatment and begin to focus on preventative care for even more patients.”
She comments, “Finding time to get in for appointments has been extremely difficult.” Since Kimberly became pregnant, she has been on an emergency pregnancy Medi-Cal insurance plan. With less than a month left of her insurance, Dientes has been working relentlessly to complete her extensive dental work.
“Over this last year, Dientes has been extremely accommodating and fitting me into the schedule, sometimes twice a week, to help finish my treatment before I no longer have insurance.
Dientes has been with me every step, always putting my care first. Now I have a smile I’m proud of, just in time to make life long memories with my son. For that, I cannot thank them enough.”
Dientes’ Beach Flats clinic is open Monday through Thursday, 7:30-4:00. Call to make an appointment: 831- 464-5411.
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For more information: www.dientes.org