West Philadelphia clinic providing dental and health services in underserved community

A West Philadelphia community health center that also provides dental services is helping to reduce crowding at emergency departments, which can be costly.

Finding a doctor or dentist can be challenging, especially for people in underserved communities. Now it's all under one roof.

Vance Evans is getting his teeth taken care of at the Public Health Management Corporation clinic in West Philly.

"This has been really good," Evans said. "Number one, I didn't have to go about the process of trying to find a dentist."

The health clinic on Cedar Avenue offers comprehensive services — everything from primary and emergency care to social services and dentists.

"It's tough to get time off from work, transportation," PHMC Dental Director Dr. Rajvir Jutla said. "When patients do come in, we try to give them as much of their health care as possible."

Jutla said the clinic provides services to Medicaid and uninsured people, with fees on a sliding scale.

"Number one, we're addressing the financial barrier to care," Jutla said.

The dental clinic is staffed with students and residents from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.

"It allows them to go out after dental school and be able to be more inclusive and more inviting and more knowledgeable about the patient populations they'll be treating in the future," Dr. Cassandra Gafford, director of oral health clinics at Penn Dental, said. "It's really important for the community because otherwise they wouldn't necessarily have access to care."

Evans said having all the health care services in one location is convenient.

"It was good that I was in the right place at the right time while here waiting for another appointment, just to have access," Evans said.

Evans said the dental students and residents who took care of him were top-notch.