A.T. Still University’s Center for Advanced Oral Health in Mesa, Ariz., one of four teaching clinics operated by the university’s Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health, will become the first nonprofit community dental clinic in Arizona with permanent anesthesia suites. The specially designed rooms will increase the clinic’s capacity to serve older patients for whom anesthesia is essential, including those with Alzheimer’s disease, other types of dementia, and other medically complex conditions.
The project is being funded by a $160,000 grant from Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust and includes converting two dental operating rooms into dental anesthesia suites. A waiting area and a recovery room will also be added to provide quiet spaces for older adults before or after treatment.
The 11,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Arizona serves individuals whose complicated oral health needs or medically complex conditions like cancer, cardiac disease, renal disease, bleeding disorders, and physical, developmental and cognitive disabilities, make it challenging for them to receive dental treatment without sedation.
