Ogden Dental Clinic Doubles Treatment Capacity

Ogden and Weber County residents now have increased access to dental care at the new Family Dental Plan (FDP) clinic in Ogden. The clinic has moved to bigger offices and expanded its staff, and is celebrating with an all-day open house Wednesday, January 10.

"We're very excited to have another dentist on staff," said Clinic Manager Mark Palmer. "The Ogden office sees an average of 300 clients a month and there is always a waiting list," he said. "With two dentists, we'll double the number of people we can help." The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) Family Dental Plan operates six clinics across the state. Paid staff and volunteers treat clients enrolled in several public assistance programs, including Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) and the Primary Care Network (PCN).

The most common services provided at the clinic are checkups, x-rays, and cleanings, as well as fluoride treatments, sealants, fillings, root canals, extractions and dentures. Staff also perform hundreds of dental screenings for children in Head Start programs. "In years past, many of the clients who came to us already had extensive decay," said Chief Dentist Dean Troili, D.D.S. "Today, since we focus so heavily on revention, we're able to keep more of our child and adult patients from developing severe oral health problems " the kind of problems that lead to surgery, extractions and other extreme treatments," he said.

The Ogden Clinic opened in May 1996 in the old Ogden Post Office building on 24th Street. It is now located in the Division of Child and Family Services building at 950 E. 25th Street, Suite A. The clinic is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Family Dental Plan also operates a mobile clinic in harder-to-reach rural areas of the state. Some of the sites served in 2006 included Ibapah, Enterprise, Eureka, Blanding and Junction/Circleville. Providers used the mobile clinic to reach many children in migrant
Head Start programs.

The states' five other Family Dental Plan clinics are in Layton, Provo, Salt Lake City, St. George and West Valley City. The public is invited to an open house at the Ogden clinic Wednesday, January 10 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CHIP, Medicaid and PCN clients seeking treatment may call the clinic at 801-395-7090. For more information on all Family Dental Plan clinics, call Bruce Murray at 801-538-7017 or 801-232-2386.