Healthy Smiles prepares opening

By Erienne Greene / Journal staff writer

Dave Fant, Leonisha Thomas and Betty Russell participate in Tuesday’s open house for the new Healthy Smiles Community Oral Health Center in Martinsburg.

MARTINSBURG - Just one week away from its official grand opening, the Healthy Smiles Community Oral Health Center hosted an open house Tuesday.

The event was attended by a number of local individuals who played key roles in seeing the entire project through during four years of planning and developing.

Betty Russell is the women who initially "got the ball rolling" on the clinic project through her tireless efforts advocating for a permanent establishment of a nonprofit community dental health center in the Eastern Panhandle.

She said that to see the progress made since the project was merely an idea is remarkable.

It was just in July that the clinic's 2,500-square-foot building, constructed by Allen Henry and located at 58 Warm Springs Ave., was leased. That left just a few months for the rest of the facility to be completed.

"It's a dream come true," she said at the open house event. "I'm the type of person who wants things done yesterday, so I've had to develop a lot of patience throughout this project. ... It's amazing how everything has come together just in time, and to see the building all finished. It's a blessing that everything has just come together."

Russell's artistic talent can be seen in the form of the brightly painted canvases hanging throughout the center, which helps create a welcoming atmosphere.

"It's funny how you can see something on paper as a design, but when you see it in person, it always looks better," she said with a laugh.

Dave Fant, the director of Shenandoah Community Health, said Russell and her husband, oral surgeon Dean Russell, were the "experts" in the process.

"They were such great help in all of this," Fant said. "It's been such a longstanding need here to get high quality oral health services, because the community simply didn't have the capacity (of dentists)."

He said he hopes to make the center a model of sustainability that will take the Shenandoah system "well into the future."

Healthy Smiles currently has an office manager, three dental assistants and Dental Director Leonisha Thomas, who most recently worked for Small Smiles Dental Centers in Roanoke, Va.

Thomas is one of two dentists who will be working at the center, as the second one has not yet been hired. Thomas said she is excited for the opening of the clinic, slated for Dec. 7.

"This is a brand new project that gives me the opportunity to run a clinic all on my own," she said. "I've only lived here in Martinsburg for a month, but already, I've met so many people who are willing to help with the clinic - so that's a good feeling."

The center will provide comprehensive oral evaluations, oral cancer screening, cleanings, fillings and extractions, root canal therapy and crown and bridge work.

Four of the seven operatory rooms are complete. A capital campaign is under way to raise $300,000 over three years, and the funds will be used to complete the clinic's remaining three rooms as well as hire another dentist and support staff.

Russell said the facility will work to meet the needs of the uninsured and underinsured, accepting patients with dental insurance, CHIP or Medicaid. It will offer a sliding-scale fee for patients who meet income requirements.

Healthy Smiles Community Oral Health Center is a service of Shenandoah Community Health, and it was brought about by the combined efforts of Shenandoah Community Health, Healthy Smiles Inc., the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle and supporting partners.

- Staff writer Erienne Greene can be reached at (304) 263-8931, ext. 183, or egreene@journal-news.net