A Dental Clinic Comes Home
A new dental clinic on Long Island’s Poospatuck Reservation is bringing much-needed care closer to home for members of the Unkechaug Indian Nation.
For years, the closest dental provider for residents of the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic, located on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, was a 30-minute drive or 2-hour bus ride to Stony Brook School of Dentistry. Because most members of the Unkechaug Indian Nation who reside on Poospatuck use public transportation, the time and expense required to make such a trip meant that most residents went without any sort of dental care … for years.
Now that has changed. On August 29, a brand-new dental clinic opened on the 55-acre reservation, ready to serve the 700 Poospatuck residents. The clinic was made possible by a $550,000 grant from the New York State Department of Health. A Stony Brook School of Dentistry graduate Vivek Viswanath, DDS, will serve as the on-site dentist.
Indigenous populations have dental caries rates three to five times higher than the national average and with little access to preventive dental care, these rates remained unchanged over the past decades. Hopefully, the new dental clinic will make a big difference in the ability of Poospatuck residents to access dental care. Plans are also being made to open a medical clinic on the reservation. Click here to read more.
