Dental clinic to open in January | Charlotte Observer

Thanks to $320,000 from the Cannon Foundation, the Cabarrus Health Alliance plans to expand its dental health services to Kannapolis in January, opening a dental clinic in its building under construction at 300 Mooresville Road.

The Cabarrus Health Alliance is Cabarrus County's public health agency. Its new 61,000-square-foot building near the North Carolina Research Campus is scheduled to be finished in December.

Alliance officials broke ground on the $7 million building in January. It will allow the agency to serve more clients and collaborate more with researchers at the biotechnology center, alliance officials have said.

Billionaire Dole Food owner David Murdock founded the campus, opening the $1.5 billion complex in October 2008.

The foundation recently awarded the alliance a $120,000 grant toward construction of a dental clinic inside the Mooresville Road building. The foundation already had given $200,000 to the project.

"Without the financial support of the Cannon Foundation, it would have been impossible to expand dental operations in Kannapolis," Public Health Director William Pilkington said in a statement. " ... This clinic will allow the Cabarrus Health Alliance to serve critical unmet dental health needs for over 1,000 children per year."

The dental clinic will have six treatment chairs and occupy 3,200 square feet, said Betty Braxton, human resources and community relations director for the health alliance.

The clinic anticipates handling 6,500 patient visits a year, Braxton said. A dentist and a dental hygienist will staff the clinic.

The alliance's Concord dental clinic is at 280 Concord Parkway S., Suite 110-A. It has 12 chairs and is fully staffed by four dentists, three public health dental hygienists, eight certified dental assistants and additional support staff.

Details: www.cabarrushealth.org.