Grant expands urgent dental care access in Buncombe County

Dozens of Buncombe County patients are turned away each week when they try to get dental care at Western North Carolina Community Health Services’ Minnie Jones Health Center, where the clinic is already at capacity. For low-income and uninsured residents, the shortage is more than an inconvenience. Buncombe County is designated as a dental health professional shortage area, leaving many families with few options when a toothache, infection or broken tooth turns into an urgent problem.

A multiyear $667,673 grant from The Leon Levine Foundation is intended to relieve some of that pressure. Western North Carolina Community Health Services announced on April 22 that it will open a new urgent dental site in partnership with Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry at 155 Livingston St. in Asheville. The new operation will use two dental exam rooms at ABCCM’s Medical Ministry Clinic and will see patients three days a week.

The organization expects the site to add about 1,040 urgent dental visits in its first year and 1,440 in its second. That extra capacity is aimed at patients who need extractions and other immediate treatment, while also creating a pathway into ongoing care for people who have gone without regular dentistry for too long.

WNCCHS said patients will be accepted regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. That matters in a county where untreated dental problems can spill into the rest of daily life, affecting work, school, pregnancy outcomes and chronic disease. The new site is also meant to connect patients to other services, including primary care, behavioral health, prenatal care, pharmacy services and care management, rather than treating the mouth as separate from the rest of the body.

WNCCHS serves more than 13,000 patients in Western North Carolina and already offers comprehensive medical, dental and behavioral health services at Minnie Jones Health Center, along with an on-site pharmacy. The nonprofit opened the Hominy Valley Health Center in Candler in May 2022 with ABCCM, a partnership that suggests the two organizations are building on existing ties to expand safety-net care in Buncombe County.

ABCCM’s Medical Ministry at 155 Livingston St. already provides clinic and pharmacy services, and the group says its work focuses on poverty, hunger, homelessness and access to healthcare for underserved residents. WNCCHS said interpretation and translation services will be available at no cost, a detail that could be especially important for patients navigating care without stable insurance, steady income or easy access to English-language medical services. The new site is expected to open in summer 2026, adding local capacity in a county where the wait for treatment has become part of the crisis itself.