La Clínica together with its partners, supporters and other community stakeholders celebrated the Open House for its newly expanded La Clínica Children’s Dental Clinic on Friday, February 15, 2019. Since 2003, La Clínica has specialized in serving pediatric patients with special health care needs (SHCN) through this clinic in partnership with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Nearly 55% of the more than 6,000 patients served annually are medically compromised with conditions like blood disorders, cancer, cerebral palsy and/or have SHCN like developmental Down syndrome and autism. In addition, this site is only one of 2 children’s dental clinics in Northern California that serves pediatric patients on Medi-Cal that need special care and the only children’s dental clinic in the country that is connected to a Children’s Hospital Level 1 Trauma Center.
Since moving into this newly expanded space in September 2018, La Clínica has already served more than 4,100 unique patients, of which 580 were new. The expanded space includes 13 dental chairs and state-of-the-art equipment all throughout and has been designed especially for patients with SHCN. In addition, the wait time to enroll new patients has decreased significantly from 6 months to 1 week. The reach and impact of this clinic go well beyond Alameda County, regularly serving patients from all over Northern California, as far away as the Central Valley, Redding, Chico, Reno and even near the border with Oregon. The clinic is located on 4881 Telegraph Ave in the Temescal District in Oakland.
Thanks to supporters and community members like you who advocated saving and expanding La Clínica’s Dental Clinic for the thousands of children with special health needs who will benefit from this resource in years to come.