Family Practice and Counseling Network
Philadelphia, Pa.
“In Philadelphia’s East Falls neighborhood, the Family Practice and Counseling (Network) will create a dental clinic. Dental director Frank Torrisi says the center serves many people from the Abbottsford public housing complex. The area is short on dentists and Torrisi says many children don’t get a regular cleaning before they start school. ‘A lot of these children do develop early childhood cavities, which is a pretty aggressive form of decay related to sleeping with the nursing bottle or juice. So by the time they are three or four, they oftentimes need to be put in hospital to have this treatment done because it is quite extensive and they are quite young,’ [Torrisi said]. The center will partner with Temple University’s School of Dentistry to hire a pediatric specialist…. Torrisi says the $450,000 renovation will create a clinic with seven dental chairs and serve more than 2,000 people each year: ‘We are located fairly close to public housing, that’s part of our mission, to be in areas of public housing. We are looking forward to offering them oral health services under the same roof. You know they can come in if they are having dental problems, if they have a toothache or if they need just regular upkeep.’” – WHYY-FM, July 7, 2009
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