Mobile Dental Unit Hits the Road

The NCAFCC’s new mobile dental unit is up and running!

After some unanticipated delays related to equipment installation and meeting state regulatory requirements, the mobile unit went into service in May, initially serving patients at Cook Community Clinic in Huntersville (formerly Lake Norman Community Health Clinic).

Now making the rounds of participating free and charitable clinics in the Charlotte region, the $550,000 mobile unit is serving Cook Community Clinic, Hope Community Clinic of East Charlotte, Matthews Free Medical Clinic in Matthews, Community Free Clinic in Concord, and HealthReach in Mooresville.

The mobile unit is expected to serve an estimated 1,000 patients in a typical year – about the same number as some of the larger dental clinics operated by NCAFCC members. The unit was made possible through generous support from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Mecklenburg County and The Leon Levine Foundation.

The mobile unit has helped Cook Community Clinic serve some of the hundreds of patients on a waiting list for dental care as the clinic works to expand the oral health care capacity at its brick-and-mortar facility in Huntersville.

Expanding access to oral health care for North Carolina’s uninsured and underinsured is a major focus for the NCAFCC and our member clinics. ICYMI, read our story from the Winter 2024 newsletter about the multiple initiatives that are currently ongoing or have recently come to fruition. And read the North Carolina Health News story detailing the recent report of the Oral Health Transformation Task Force of the N.C. Institute of Medicine, which offers strategies for reducing the significant barriers to oral health care faced by North Carolina’s uninsured and underinsured.