Affordable Dental Care officially opened its new doors on Madison’s North Side on Nov. 11 with expanded facilities to reach more patients.
Affordable Dental Care moved over to its new building from its previous location, just down the street on Fordem Avenue, after it quickly realized its need to serve more patients. Now at 1709 Aberg Ave, it plans to double its impact with new expanded facilities.
Affordable Dental Care is a bilingual, non-profit dental clinic dedicated to providing quality and compassionate care to the uninsured and underinsured in Wisconsin. The non-profit’s new facility has seven dental chairs and office space for its administrative needs and dentists. Previously, when Affordable Dental Care needed to meet with donors it would meet off-site due to limited space in its old office. It hopes to have a more central ability to meet donors and service patients in the same space. Additional changes include a breakroom large enough that all staff can eat together.
“It’s nice to have a nice new building for everyone, but the real reason we’re doing this is the amount of people that need these services, and our fees and our demand, we can’t handle it,” said Alan Thompson, office manager at Affordable Dental Care.
(Photo by Omar Waheed)
Even after just opening the new space, Affordable Dental Care is already solidly booked out months ahead. It hopes to jump from 2,700 to 5,000 patients a year. It plans to open on Fridays in the future exclusively for walk-in patients.
Thompson credits its ability to reach patients due to its unique model — namely that it’s cheaper. It does not accept insurance, but still is roughly half the cost of most clinics in Wisconsin. Affordable Dental is one of 25 free and charitable clinics that provide dental care. It sees a rising need for dental care with limited options for affordability.
“People talk about how they keep expanding highways but that just causes more people to drive… it’s a situation where we’re seeing more people, which is still good, but ideally, we want to cut down those wait times,” Thompson said.
(Photo by Omar Waheed)
Despite the plans to reach more patients, Affordable Dental Care is currently functioning with its primary dentist out on maternity leave while looking for a second. For the time being, it is relying on the charity of other dentists to fill in.
“We’re looking out way farther than I’d like right now,” Thompson said. “Right now for a new patient [for] a full exam, booking out is 10 months. I’d much rather have that [be] four to six months.”
Affordable Dental Care is also currently looking for a new executive director, but its current priority is on finding its second dentist.
