The operations manager for a low-income dental clinic in Nelson says services for their clients has been postponed indefinitely following a fire over the long weekend.
Fire tore through the office area of the Teeth Community Dental Clinic in the Front Street Plaza early Monday morning, causing $100,000 damage.
Speaking with Vista Radio Tuesday morning, Barry Nelson says they haven’t been able to visit the site but representatives from their insurance company will be looking at the damage over the next couple of days.
While treating clients is on hold, getting the word to them that their appointments are cancelled is a challenge.
“We have, unfortunately, lost a lot of our planned information from the clinic with respect to client schedules but we are doing our best to contact people who do have an appointment in the near future with the information we do have,” Nelson said.
In the coming days, Nelson says they will have contact information for people who had an appointment scheduled and plan to contact patients once the clinic is reopened in some capacity.
Nelson says he has advised the board of directors of the situation “and we are working on a plan at the present (time).”
“We are really concerned about our patients, the delay. At this point, we don’t know how long that might be for the restoration but this is not a good thing for any of our patients to have this situation happen,” Nelson explained.
In the meantime, he suggested people should seek other dental care in other offices, especially as some patients could be in significant pain and discomfort.
The Teeth Community Dental Clinic provides dental services to those with an annual net income of less than $30,000 and who have lived in the area at least three months.
The clinic had two rooms for dental work and one room for a dental hygienist. There are four dentists supplying clinic days this year.