Island Health Care will open a new dental center later this summer in an effort to make it easier for Vineyarders to access dental care.
The four-chair clinic, currently under construction, will be located at Mariners Landing in Edgartown, and is part of a larger expansion of the health care facility, Island Health Care officials said at a Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce event at the unfinished space Wednesday.
Dentist Aldino Maggiulli will oversee the clinic, which was established in part with a $500,000 expansion grant by MV Youth. He said he hoped it could handle between 30 and 40 patients a day in order to address the lack of medical access on the Island. Dr. James Wolff, the chief medical officer at Island Health Care, echoed the need.
“There wasn’t really anybody providing dental care for the uninsured and underinsured,” he said.
Dental care on the Island is complicated by the finite number of dentists here. The Vineyard has one of the lowest rates of dentists in the state. According to the 2023 statistical profile published by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, there is just one dentist for every 1,920 people in Dukes County. That’s a lower ratio than both the state, which overall has a dentist for every 930, and the entire country which has one dentist for every 1,380 people.
At the event Wednesday, Dr. Maggiulli showed a few guests where the dental care will be administered.
“You can see how handicap accessible it is,” he said as he stepped between two metal structures that will become walls, reaching his arms out to emphasize the size of the space.
The four treatment rooms will each be equipped with a dental chair and a large monitor to display patients’ X-rays. Across the hall from the treatment rooms is what Dr. Maggiulli considered the two best parts of the space. The first is the sterilization room, a dedicated space to cleaning and preparing the tools of his trade. The second is the room for X-rays.
“We can go left to right, up and down, front to back,” Dr. Maggiulli said, explaining that the X-ray machine will be able to take panoramic photos of patients. He added that panoramic X-rays are a type of preventative care usually only found at private clinics.
Dental treatment will be provided on Island Health Care’s sliding pay scale, according to Dr. Maggiulli.
“It shouldn’t be for the elite, for the rich,” he said. “It is so difficult to leave work, take your kids out of school, get on a ferry, find a dentist on the Cape.”
Island Health Care is in the process of hiring the rest of the staff for the dental center. Dr. Maggiulli hopes to have two hygienists, two dental assistants, a receptionist and an office manager. Once the center opens, two students from the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine will join the staff as part of a residency program.
According Cynthia Mitchell, the Island Health Care CEO, these students will join the staff in autumn at the earliest. Housing will be provided to the dental students participating in the program.
After Dr. Maggiulli finished giving a tour of the full space, Carolina Cooney, executive director of the chamber of commerce, welcomed the audience before passing the microphone to Shimmy Mehta, chief financial officer of Island Health Care.
“Chances are we have interacted with you before,” Mr. Mehta began, explaining that Island Health Care has played a large role in healthcare on the Island, such as running TestMV, the former coronavirus testing site.
In addition to the dental center, Island Health Care plans to expand its primary care facilities for both adult and pediatric patients at the Mariners Landing location.
“You are standing in what will be the primary care unit,” Mr. Mehta said.
Construction has not yet begun on the primary care space. According to Mr. Mehta, the new units are 10 times larger than the space Island Health Care currently uses.
Ms. Mitchell explained that the expansion will make the organization’s approach to health care easier to achieve. According to her, practitioners at Island Health Care take a big picture approach with their patients. One aspect of a patient’s health might be impacted by another, and Island Health Care wants different members of a patient’s care team to work together to address overarching issues, she said.
Following a dentist appointment, Mr. Mitchell said she hopes, “kids will visit the center for children’s health, which will be right next door.”
Other donors for the clinic include the Health Resources and Services Administration, Martha's Vineyard Community Foundation, Martha's Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation, MassDevelopment and the Farm Neck Foundation.
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