Local Start Dental to Establish New Free and Low-Cost Dental Clinic in Partnership with UNC Dentistry
Local Start Dental has announced plans to begin a new dental clinic in Durham, North Carolina, in partnership with the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry. The clinic is expected to open in 2021.
Local Start Dental has announced plans to begin a new dental clinic in Durham, North Carolina, in partnership with the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry. The clinic is expected to open in 2021.
Local Start Dental, a recently formed non-profit organization, will be a learning and technology-based dental practice. The practice will offer a wide range of adult dental services, with a focus on providing dentures, oral surgery and dental implants to thousands of area veterans, elderly and other underserved patients.
Local Start Dental will operate in partnership with the UNC Adams School of Dentistry to staff the clinic and will be financially supported by other business enterprises serving dental professionals. Adams School of Dentistry fourth-year dental students will work in rotation at the Durham practice to receive hands-on, clinical experience under the guidance of UNC faculty. Local Start Dental will be led by a paid full-time clinical director, supplemented by part-time volunteer dentists, hygienists, and support staff from the community. Dental services will be either free, discounted or reimbursed through Medicaid/VA programs, and are designed to be complementary to the offerings of existing Durham-based charitable practices.
The 5,000-square-foot practice facility will be on the ground floor of the Willard Street Apartments building. The practice is strategically located in the heart of downtown Durham adjacent to the Durham Station Transportation Center, a block away from the American Tobacco Campus, and a short drive from Duke Hospitals and the VA.
Local Start Dental will feature a faculty-led student practice to be staffed by the Adams School of Dentistry, eight operatories, and a state-of-the-art 3D printing laboratory that will be provided by Carbon 3D. In collaboration with Affordable Care LLC, a Morrisville-based company that provides business services to Affordable Dentures and Implant and DDS Dentures + Implant Solutions practices across the country, Local Start Dental will host periodic continuing professional education sessions for practicing dentists.
