New Fayetteville VA Dental Clinic has Veterans, staff smiling
Clinic offers more treatment areas, new technology to support dental health
Fayetteville VA Medical Center opened the doors to its new dental clinic on January 8. The clinic was a welcome sight for veterans who were the lucky ones with opening day appointments.
Ralph Loff, an 88-year-old Army veteran, made his way down the hall and took his seat as the clinic’s first patient. His impressions brought smiles to the dental staff waiting to greet him.
“This is really nice. It’s brighter with more space,” said Loff.
The new clinic doubles the number of dental examination rooms from 13 to 26. “The expansion also gives us the opportunity to add some more technology to our clinic with the space that we have with the updated infrastructure that we have,” said Dr. John McDaniel, Chief, Dental Service.
Newly added clinic technology such as 3-D printing will allow dental technicians to make dental prosthetics in house rather than mail them to a lab. The in-house capability will reduce the number of appointments and Veterans wait time for dental prosthetics such as crowns and bridges. In addition, the dentists be able to do some more sophisticated surgeries in house with the additional equipment.
“It took a multidisciplinary team to make this clinic happen and they should be proud of seeing their hard work coming to fruition,” said Mrs. Marri Fryar, Health System Executive Director. “We have a number of facility improvement projects in progress at our medical center to include audiology and our emergency department all in an effort to meet the health care needs of our Veterans. This is a great way to begin this new year. We are working hard to enhance services, hire staff and modernize facilities.”
Planning for the growth
Meeting the needs of a rapidly growing Veteran population in Southeastern North Carolina takes planning and time. Dentists like Dr. Jesse Howard, former Dental Services Chief, admit that the clock doesn’t always move fast but it is important to get it right.
“We started working on what we believe we would need to support VA dentistry in the area almost 19 years ago,” said Howard. “At first we thought we would set up space in the newly built Fayetteville VA Health Care Center. Instead, we realized that the medical center would be best location. Lot’s of hard work but I am glad I was able to be here on the day the clinic opened,” he added.”
McDaniel began working on the project in 2016. “Seven years later, we're opening the doors and there is so much excitement from the whole team to be able to provide more care for the veterans.”
“All of our (dental treatment) chairs are pretty much outfitted the same and allow the full scope of general dentistry,” said McDaniel.
That full scope of dentistry will get tested with high patient volume. According to McDaniel, the Fayetteville VA Coastal Health Care System has among the highest enrolled dental eligible veterans in VA.
“We've known there are veterans here that want VA care,” said McDaniel. “The new clinic is an example of how we are increasing access to high quality care for our veterans.”
Loff said he is pleased with the care the Fayetteville VA has provided him for 44 years. “I‘ve always had great care in the older clinic and I am sure I am going to continue to get great care here in this new clinic,” said Loff.