Dental-health center gets larger facility

Staff report

NEW CASTLE, Pa.

Money from the federal stimulus funds helped pay for a community dental-health center to move to a larger facility.

Primary Health Network’s New Castle Dental Center received $238,700 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The money helped pay for the center’s relocation from 1112 S. Mill St. to 2807 Wilmington Road in the Fox Chase Plaza. The new facility is three times the size of the former center site.

“In the short term, the recovery act funding the New Castle Dental Center received helped to provide work for 15 local contractors who were hired to renovate this new facility,” said U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire of McCandless, D-4th, who voted for the stimulus bill and attended Monday’s opening of the new center. “And in the long term, the facility will help the New Castle Dental Center provide quality health care to a greater number of local residents.”

The former location had space for four dental work-spaces, but the new one has nine.

This enlarged space will help the center reduce its patient backlog and accommodate new patients more quickly. The center also plans to hire one or two more dentists as well as one or two additional support staff.

“Without recovery-act funding, the New Castle Dental Center could not have moved into this new facility,” said Jack Laeng, chief executive officer of Primary Health Network, said. “Now, we will be able to offer quality dental care to twice as many patients as before.”