Dental center will offer care to all
A dental center that has made affordable dental care available to all patients, regardless of insurance or income, was dedicated Friday in honor of one of the partners that made opening the office possible. The Fayette County Community Action Agency’s Community Dental Services center is located on the fourth floor of the FCCAA building at 140 N. Beeson Ave. The office was funded through a public/private partnership.
Donors for the $450,000 rehabilitation of the space for the office and its operation include the state, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Rural Pennsylvania Initiative and State Farm. The office has been dedicated to State Farm, which gave a $25 million donation to work with LISC.
Dr. James Davis has moved his private practice to set up shop inside the center.
Davis, who had his own private practice for 27 years, incorporated his practice along with the community dental center.
He said he sees about 20 to 30 patients a day and the practice is open to the public, just like any other dental practice.
Davis said he likes to help people who previously had no access to dental care. One patient he has encountered since opening the center last Sept. 10 is a 30-year-old woman who had never been to a dentist. Davis said she was a model patient, but needed a lot of work – and the issue was always financial.
Davis is handling all the dentistry himself, but he said the office may have to get someone else soon. He has a part-time hygienist, who soon will work three days a week, and a full-time assistant, who is also the secretary.
Davis said the new state-of-the-art facility is a great place to work. The open and airy office has two dental chairs with access to the X-ray machine and another chair used by the hygienist, as well as a laboratory and film processing area.
During the dedication ceremony, Jim Stark, executive director of FCCAA, said the patients are charged on a sliding scale based on income and family size. Only a few local dentists accept Medicaid for payment and many people simply do not go to a dentist because they can’t afford it, he added.
Stark said half of the Fayette County population qualifies for the sliding fees.
Tony McGhee, LISC Rural Pennsylvania Initiative director, said FCCAA was selected as one of only seven sites in rural Pennsylvania to receive funding, labeling it as “one more step Fayette County made to revitalize.”