The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation awarded Open Door Community Health Center an $80,000 grant to support a major expansion at Burre Dental Center in Eureka. The project aims to significantly increase the clinic’s capacity, enabling it to serve thousands of patients annually.
Dr. Travis Burnham, Open Door Dental Clinic Director, explained, “This expansion will add thousands of new appointment slots compared to previous years and compared to 2024 performance.”
The Delta Dental grant is crucial to the project’s success and recognizes Open Door’s ongoing commitment to providing affordable, high-quality dental care in rural communities. “This support enables us to fulfill our mission of providing more dental services to the community,” Burnham noted.
The expansion adds six new dentists, bringing the total number of dentists to 22. This also creates opportunities to recruit more dentists—a persistent challenge in rural areas.
“Recruiting dental and medical professionals continues to be one of our biggest challenges,” Burnham said. “In rural and remote areas across the country, our focus remains on bringing in long-term care providers, and that’s exactly what Open Door is doing.”
Open Door estimates that the renovation will increase patient visits by approximately 8,000 per year, significantly expanding access to dental care for families in Humboldt County.