Health Department opens expanded dental clinic

DUPAGE COUNTY—The DuPage County Health Department opened its expanded Dental Clinic with a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house on April 12.

Speaking at the event were Executive Director Maureen McHugh, Dr. James Weeks of Naperville (a Board of Health member and Chairman of the Dental Health Advisory Board) and Linda Kurzawa, President of the Board of Health.

President Kurzawa said the clinic was expanded to meet the need for oral health care among the increasing number of low-income DuPage County residents. From 2007 to 2011, the number of visits to the Dental Clinic in Central Office increased from 1,328 to 2,251, a jump of nearly 70 percent.

The Dental Clinic has been expanded from two treatment rooms to five treatment rooms with new dental chairs and equipment in each room, as well as doubling the waiting room area. Dental Program staff members moved into space adjacent to the clinic and that will make it easier to consult with clients and make referrals during non-clinic times.

President Kurzawa announced that the expansion will allow the dental staff to increase the number of patient visits to more than 4,000 each year within two to three years.

Dr. Weeks also said during the ceremony that more private practice dentists are needed for the Health Department's Dental Care Connections Program, which is a referral program that links low-income people in need of dental care to local providers.

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