Eight new dental chairs now await patients at a new Dientes Community Dental clinic following the organization’s grand opening celebration Wednesday evening.
More than 100 people attended the upbeat event that featured food and beverages, live music, clinic tours and words from Dientes officials and city dignitaries, including Mayor Maria Orozco.
The new clinic is Dientes’ second Watsonville location and the fifth clinic countywide which will serve 3,000 additional patients annually.
“It’s really an amazing day for us,” said Dientes CEO Laura Marcus. “Finally we will be able to expand our services in Watsonville. Along with our Freedom Boulevard location this is also a partnership with the County. We simply ran out of room in the five dental chairs on Freedom Boulevard where they have been asking for help for years, and now we can finally open the doors to welcome new patients.”
Marcus said about 20 people will work at the new facility which replaces the former dental office of Abel Loredo, which operated there for 15 years.
“We opened our first clinic in 1994 and I started working here in 2004,” he said.
Dave Winstrom, who has been a dentist at Dientes for the past 12 years said the facility will offer a “full scope of dental care.”
“We upgraded the place and brought in new equipment, but the former place was left in really good shape, so that certainly saved us money” he said. “The main thing is our goal of bringing in around 3,000 patients to this new clinic.”
