There was a celebration Thursday years in the making. Children’s Dental Services reopened its expanded clinic in northeast Minneapolis, which will serve an additional 15,000 children each year.

“Essentially doubling the capacity of this building to be a dental safety net,” said Sarah Wovcha, the executive director of the nonprofit.

There are now 16 rooms where patients, many of whom are low-income, will be seen for a variety of reasons.

“Only about 40% of low-income people on medical assistance in Minnesota are able to see a dentist in any given year,” said Wovcha. “These folks, instead of showing up in the emergency room with a toothache or an abscess that costs the taxpayers five times more than prevention, we are serving them here.”

The project is a collaboration between Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation, Otto Bremer Trust, Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Minnesota Department of Health, Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis.

There are several barriers to care, including the low reimbursement rate for patients on medical assistance, according to Wovcha.

“They still don’t meet the cost of care and that means that if you’re a private office and you want to accept patients, it’s going to be tricky for you,” she explained.

Care providers are also retiring faster than new professionals are graduating, according to Wovcha.

“We know there is a tremendous shortage of providers around the state,” said Stephanie Albert, the president of the Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation, which partnered on this project.

“North Minneapolis is a dental desert,” said Albert. “Fifty-four of our 84 counties have dental deserts, which means they have a shortage of dental providers and when you have a shortage of providers, you have a shortage of care.”

Children’s Dental Services is also working to address that broader need across the state by serving 66 of the 87 counties through its mobile vans. Teams bring care to families directly, whether it’s at schools, low-income housing or WIC clinics. The expanded critical access clinic in Minneapolis is the nerve center for that effort too.

“Dental disease is the most common chronic childhood illness and it’s entirely preventable,” said Wovcha.

Children’s Dental Services is getting ready to open an additional clinical dental hub in Duluth later this month and another one is in development for the Iron Range.

“They’re a critical piece to reaching folks who might not have access to care otherwise,” said Albert.