Public officials and interested citizens came to an open house on Dec. 12 for the new dental clinic in Tyrrell County from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The clinic staff will start making appointments just for Fridays starting Jan. 9.

“By February, we hope to expand to Wednesdays as well as Fridays.  After these appointments are full, we will operate one more day each week, either on Monday or Thursday,” said Kathleen DeVore Jones, Health Director for the Martin-Tyrrell-Washington District Health Department in an interview on Nov. 26

Staff reporting to work in the Tyrrell Clinic on those days will be a dentist, a dental hygienist, a dental assistant, and a clerk or the dental clinic administrator.  Staff will be shared with the Plymouth location.  Appointments will be made by telephone anytime during the week because the phone system will be connected to the clinic in Plymouth to take calls when staff is not present in the Columbia location.

Devore Jones emphasized the need for local people to use the clinic.

“There is not a dentist here already because there is not enough people here to support one,” she said.

Devore Jones mentioned that there was a dentist in the area that practiced part-time. But they retired. MTW can afford to come to the area one or two days a week because they have a clinic in Plymouth.

Ideally there will be a balance of people with and without insurance using the clinic.

“That subsidizes our ability to give lower prices to other people. Most dentists do not take Medicaid or they only allow self-pay for insurance,” Devore Jones said.

Dan Gerlach, President of the Golden LEAF Foundation, gave more background on the Foundation’s involvement with the dental clinic.

“This is part of our Community Assistance Initiative. People in Tyrrell County were focused on health care as one of their top priorities. We provided a grant of $294,000 mostly towards equipment but some of it was for redesigning the building,” he said.

Gerlach mentioned that Tyrrell County was a sparsely populated county and it is hard to get specific health care.

“We have some great young professionals who are well-trained by our community system and I think it will make a difference. My colleagues who work in health care say that one of the top challenges facing rural North Carolina is good oral care,” he said.

County Mananger David Clegg and Commissioner Leroy Spivey also attended the open  house and visited with the staff of the clinic.

Food and raffle tickets were available for anyone in attendance.