Health center gets grant for dental clinic

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson announced that the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center will receive a $211,840 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS).

The funds will be used to hire additional staff for the health center’s new dental clinic and support staff for the primary care clinic.

“The Sonoma Valley Community Health Center does outstanding work to make sure everyone in our community has access to affordable, quality health care,” said Thompson. “I am proud to announce these important funds which will allow our health center to hire more providers and serve more patients.”

Health center CEO Cheryl Johnson was pleased to hear of the grant.

“We are pleased to have been afforded the Expanded Services opportunity, which will allow the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center to allocate resources toward the critical task of provider recruitment,” she said. “With this new funding, SVCHC will immediately launch grant-related activities and anticipates the addition of a full-time provider, resulting in an additional 450 patients served for our community. Also, with the addition of comprehensive dental services through our new dental clinic, the long-standing oral health disparities and lack of access to dental care in our service area will be remedied.”

The new health center dental clinic boasts 1,814 square feet of space, which includes six dental chairs, and will open as part of the new expanded facility this month. The new dental clinic is the first and only local dental clinic to address the needs of many of Sonoma Valley’s adults and children.

According to a 2010 study conducted by the Sonoma County Task Force on Oral Health, there were only 15 dentists for 109,000 low-income dental patients countywide. The Task Force characterized this as a local health-care crisis. As a result, 52 percent of area third-graders have a history of tooth decay – well above the California state average. The new SVCHC dental clinic will begin to bridge the gap in oral health care in the region.

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