Utah’s largest community health center will soon be able to take care of patients with severe dental problems — from life-threatening tooth infections to missing teeth — without having to refer them elsewhere for treatment.
The Fourth Street Clinic, which primarily serves homeless and low-income Utahns, plans to use most of a $2.9 million federal grant to build its own three-chair dental lab at its campus in downtown Salt Lake City. The clinic, working with its partners, also will be able to add substance abuse clinics and do a mechanical and seismic upgrade with the grant money, which was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In Provo, Mountainlands Community Health Center also received a grant. The two clinics estimate the money will allow them to serve nearly 1,500 more patients.
Fourth Street will be able to almost double the size of its current clinic, renovating space to the west that is currently occupied by other tenants in the clinic’s building. Chambers said construction work will begin in August and is expected to be completed in March 2013. She said 22 construction jobs will be created by the project. Once finished, the new services will allow Fourth Street to serve an additional 1,000 new patients. Salt Lake Tribune
