The Lynn Community Health Center’s Dental Clinic holds a place of reverence among its patients. For 20 years, the Clinic has provided professional, top-caliber dental services for Lynn residents at the Center located on Union Street.
“This year, we’re celebrating 20 years of the dental clinic,” said Dr. Herlivi Linares, associate dental director of the clinic since 2004. “This clinic first opened in 2001 under the direction of Dr. William Eaves. We moved to this new facility in 2012.”
Linares, who received her undergraduate degree at the Central University of Venezuela and graduated from Boston University Dental School in 2004, said the Clinic offers preventative, restorative, endodontic, and prosthodontist services.
“We also see a good number of pediatric patients,” she added.
More than 500 patients visit the LCHC Dental Clinic each week. The Clinic is staffed by 14 full-time or part-time dentists. Dental school students from Boston University, Tufts, Harvard, and New York University also provide professional dental treatment at the Clinic under the supervision of Dr. Eaves and Dr. Linares.
“The majority of our patients are from Lynn, but we have patients from other areas of the North Shore and Boston,” said Linares, who received the prestigious Oral Health Hero Award for her ongoing commitment to providing children and adults in the Lynn community with high quality oral health services. I’m very proud of our clinic. Our success is based on the care of the patients that we do.”
Dentists at the LCHC Dental Clinic participate in community service projects, such as health fairs, in Lynn throughout the year.
Through the years, Dr. Eaves, who is a graduate of Boston College and BU Dental School, and Dr. Linares have formed a close, professional partnership based on mutual respect and excellence in the dental profession that has made the LCHC Dental Clinic a national model, another accolade for LCHC who will be celebrating its 50th (actually, 50-Plus-1) anniversary at a gala in April.
“Dr. Eaves is the best boss I ever had,” said Dr. Linares. “He is a man with conviction. He has a great heart and strong passion to serve, so that’s why we all love him and feel motivated to come in every day to work. When you have someone like that supporting you and supporting the job that we do in the community – even when we have a lot of patients, we don’t feel tired. We just feel very motivated to continue doing our job here.”
For Dr. Eaves, it’s been a labor of love at the LCHC Dental Clinic. “It is very rewarding to deliver dental care to people who would otherwise go without,” said Dr. Eaves