The unveiling of a dental clinic in South Dallas raises high the name of Dr. Marcellus Clayton Cooper.
“He’s from this neighborhood,” Frazier Revitalization CEO Dorothy Hopkins said. “He’s lived in this neighborhood. The first Black dentist in Texas.”
The Dr. M.C. Cooper Dental Clinic is named for the first Black dentist in Texas.
Run by the Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, the free clinic is located at 4570 Scyene Road in Dallas.
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It will improve access to dental care in southern Dallas communities.
“This is one of the unhealthiest ZIP codes in the city of Dallas and it’s very important to have dental care, quality health care, residents can afford and they can attain,” Hopkins said.
“No real means to get good dental care provided to them,” Texas A&M School of Dentistry Dean Lawrence Wolinsky said. “It’s going to allow them to be able to improve their oral health generally and be able to have emergency care when needed for the dental conditions that they have.”
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The clinic will provide comprehensive dental care for patients. It also serves as a teaching tool for dental students teaching them skills and showing them the need among vulnerable populations.
“Hopefully we are going to be able to attract students to remain in those communities after they graduate to become practitioners in those communities,” Wolinsky said.
All of this was made possible by $4.4 million from two anonymous donors and a $780,000 donation from the Delta Dental Foundation.
There are several more acres surrounding the clinic. Plans are to expand with other health care items like clinics or food store.
