An innovative model of emergency dental care and practice support has opened a new facility at 1265 Center Road in West Seneca, and will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting event and open house from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, Sept. 10. The event is open to the public.
Urgent Dental Care (UDC) is building on the success of its flagship facility in Rochester by expanding into a new location serving Erie County and Western New York. The new model of dental care is designed to benefit patients, dentists, and hospital emergency room staff.
UDC is based on the model of urgent health clinics, which sprouted up across the country to ease the burden on hospital emergency room visits. But those urgent health clinics are not prepared to handle dental emergencies that might come from slip and fall accidents, sports injuries, or other acute dental-related issues. Now patients have somewhere to turn during an unexpected dental emergency — especially if their regular dentist is closed or booked. UDC also helps ease the burden on hospital emergency rooms where suffering patients may otherwise go to relieve pain.
“This is a first-of-its-kind service in the country,” said dentist Thomas R. Sansone, DDS, who founded UDC. “It’s a collaborative win-win that helps solve some critical needs in the dental community. Patients appreciate someone seeing them right away. Dentists appreciate us working with them to support their patients, and the emergency rooms can focus on what they need to.”
The Urgent Dental Care model also allows dental practices to offer continuity of care to their patients. If an emergency happens after hours, UDC can see the patient to address the immediate issue, and return the patient back to the practice for continuation of ongoing care and treatment. “Urgent Dental Care has been a wonderful extension of my practice,” said Terry O’Keefe, DDS, who has a dental practice in Penfield, N.Y. “For a sole practitioner, Urgent Dental Care offers professional care that I would like to offer myself when I just cannot be available.”
UDC’s new West Seneca facility began evaluating and treating patients in mid-July. UDC will employ up to five dentists and 10 additional staff in the Buffalo-area location.
