This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Areli Estrada, executive director of Affordable Dental Care of Madison.
This nonprofit dental clinic, located on the northeast side of Madison, aims to “close the health care gap” for people without access to dental insurance. Its patients include both uninsured and underinsured people, who can get dental care “at reduced fees,” Estrada said.
Affordable Dental Care raised $1.2 million in grants and community funding over the past year and a half to expand into a larger clinic.
“What we’re trying to do is double our impact and serve more patients,” she said, noting its latest goal is to serve 24 patients per day Monday through Thursday, eventually opening on Fridays as well.
Estrada notes dental equipment is “very, very expensive,” and applauds the Delta Dental Foundation of Wisconsin for donating $200,000 to furnish the new Affordable Dental Care facility. The clinic also gets funding from the state Department of Health Services to cover staffing costs, and previously received more than $750,000 from the state Department of Administration.
“With getting this massive large grant, we were able to double our team, so we went from having six employees to having 12 … We’re looking at having 15 to 17 employees,” she said.
She also discusses the clinic’s growing patient base, noting it’s been growing largely by word of mouth. Some of its patients are travelling more than two hours to reach the clinic, from across Wisconsin as well as northern Illinois.
“In the state of Wisconsin, we only have 26 free and charitable dental clinics … I find so much value in working collectively and collaborating with other practices, because the demand will always be higher,” she said. “The need, it’s massive … We really want to change the narrative, and we are always working to break those extra barriers that people have.”
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
