Frederiksted Health Care hosted a soft opening this month for a dental expansion at the Northshore Health Center on St. Croix, thanks to the aid of a supplemental grant and extra effort on the part of Frederiksted Health Care officials.

The clinic had added dental services in January 2017, including three dental working spaces. However, since the original opening and a great demand for dental services, the group applied for and was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration, the group’s major federal grantor.

The clinic highlights how this grant supported most of the work as it renovated what was previously storage space into five more dental work spaces, but while the federal grant funded the renovations, the clinic needed more money for equipment. So Frederiksted Health Care officials knocked on the doors of several local organizations and businesses that supported the vision and offered donations.

Their hard work paid off for the community with the V.I. Department of Health donating two dental chairs, the Bennie and Martha Benjamin Foundation outfitting a dental operatory or work space, the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands outfitting another operatory, and the Limetree refinery funding a Panorex machine. Additionally, the Sterisil V.I. donated a water purification unit.

Frederiksted Health Care operates the Frederiksted Health Center, the St. Croix Educational Complex school-based health center, the Frederiksted Health Care Dental East site, and, most recently, the Frederiksted Northshore Health Center and is funded through federal grants, local funding, and fees for services.