JFK MEDICAL CENTER AND ERIC B. CHANDLER HEALTH CENTER AWARDED $50,000 IN GRANTS FROM THE DELTA DENTAL OF NEW JERSEY FOUNDATION

- Middlesex County dental clinics to use funds to provide dental care to the underserved -

PARSIPPANY, NJ (February 12, 2008)

The Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation is proud to announce JFK Medical Center’s Dental Clinic and the Eric B. Chandler Health Center among the recipients of their 2008 grants. These organizations have received $25,000 each to forward their efforts in aiding the community. Each year, the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation chooses organizations and healthcare facilities that will best use the grants to make dental care accessible to underserved children, families, developmentally disabled, and senior citizens. 

This year, the Foundation is allocating over $700,000 in grants to help provide access to dental care for the underserved as well as dental education throughout New Jersey and Connecticut.

The grants from the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation will enable the JFK Dental Clinic to purchase necessary equipment to enable the staff to serve additional patients, for a projected total of approximately 3,200 patients in 2008. The Eric B. Chandler Health Center plans to utilize the money to continue offering comprehensive dentistry including preventive, restoration, and curative care for all ages.

“The JFK Medical Center Dental Clinic and the Eric B. Chandler Health Center have catered to the needs of the underserved for years,” said Diane Belle, Vice President, Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation. “We have chosen these clinics because we feel confident they will use the grants to make good dental care available to those in need.” 

Opened in 1978, JFK’s Dental Clinic serves a large population of underserved and indigent persons, primarily from the central New Jersey counties of Middlesex, Union, and Somerset. Located in Edison, the JFK Dental Clinic provides restorative and preventive dentistry as well as endodontics, periodontics, and oral surgical services to those in need throughout central New Jersey. At the clinic, the emphasis is on proficient, high quality care for patients of all ages, from children to the elderly. 

The Eric B. Chandler Health Center, operated by UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Eric B. Chandler Community Board, is a comprehensive, family-oriented community health center dedicated to the provision of high quality ambulatory care services to low income and medically indigent residents of the Greater New Brunswick community.

About Delta Dental of New Jersey, Inc.
Delta Dental of New Jersey, Inc., is New Jersey’s and Connecticut's leading dental benefits carrier, providing coverage to more than one million people through contracts with employers in New Jersey and Connecticut. The Delta Dental system offers seamless dental benefits administration for employer groups throughout the country and the largest network of credentialed dentists in the nation. For more information visit us on the Web at www.deltadentalnj.com.

About the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation
Delta Dental established the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation in 1986. Its mission includes promoting and assisting educational projects devoted to the enhancement of dental health, research programs designed to increase public awareness of the general benefits of good health, and to improve dental health through the science of dentistry. Each year, the Delta Dental Foundation provides financial support to various organizations throughout the state.