Where many cultures come together to say 'aah'

When Vacharee Peterson launched her dental practice 25 years ago in St. Paul, she never imagined that her one-chair operation would mushroom into one of the Twin Cities' most unusual dental clinics.

She wanted to cater to immigrants and low-income folks who have a hard time finding dentists to fix their teeth. She and her husband, Andrew Peterson, carved out an unusual niche in dentistry -- running a clinic where patients could find staff speaking more than a dozen languages, including Hmong, Oromo and Hindi.

In the past two decades, Peterson's St. Paul clinic has delivered dental care to more than 80,000 people, she said. That number is expected to soar even higher, now that her Community Dental Care opened up a second clinic last month in the former Maplewood Public Library.

"People ask, 'How could you buy such a big building?'" Peterson said with a smile. "I tell them it just sort of happened."

Peterson, who emigrated from Thailand, was sitting in her office in the former library. Gone are the aisles of books and reading nooks.

In their place are 16 dental stations, state-of-the-art labs and a dozen of the estimated 64 workers who will eventually staff the clinic.

A sign on Beam Avenue outside the clinic announces: "Now Accepting Appointments. Quality Dental Care for All."

A walk into the clinic shows this is a different kind of place. The clients in the waiting room, at this moment, are Asian. The woman answering phones is Hmong American. The young man in the blue clinical jacket next to her is from Burma.

Meanwhile the dentist passing by is from Ethiopia and speaks Oromo and Amharic. Another dentist is from India and speaks Hindi and Urdu.

"Some people call this the United Nations of dentistry," said Peterson, noting that for new immigrants in particular, it's comforting to have staff who speak their language and know their culture.

Caters to those others reject

The clinic openly courts patients on Medical Assistance, who often have a hard time finding a dentist to take them on, largely because the reimbursements are about half the true costs of dental procedures, Peterson, said.

Catering to both immigrants and low-income patients fills an important niche, said Rob Fulton, director of Ramsey County Public Health.

"Here's a woman who really put her money where her commitment is," Fulton said. "This isn't new to her. She's done this at her other clinic.

"She's taken an enormous risk ... buying this building and marketing to a group of people who can't easily get into dental appointments."

Peterson said she and her husband had been looking for a place to expand their practice beyond the St. Paul location. There were days when the clinic's waiting room was so packed, she said, that lines of patients actually snaked out the door.

The patients ranged from new immigrants who had never seen a toothbrush to first-generation Minnesotans coming in for annual check-ups.

Peterson said every time she drove by the vacant library building, kitty corner from St. John's Hospital, she watched with interest to see who the new owners would be. She made an initial offer in 2006 but had to withdraw it for health reasons.

After several offers fell through, Peterson made another offer on the building last year. This time it went through. Using her savings and assistance from community groups and individuals, she transformed the library into the new clinic.

Appreciative patients

Her patients include Janie Vang of White Bear Lake, who was getting her annual dental check-up with Peterson last week. Vang said her mom, who doesn't speak English, began seeing Peterson years ago. Most of the kids go to the clinic, too.

"You feel more at home here, more comfortable," Vang said. "And for my mom, it was easy to walk in without a translator."

The St. Paul Foundation awarded Peterson a grant of $100,000 for the new clinic. The project dovetails with its goals of eliminating health care disparities, said Lori Berg, program officer.

"Vacharee is a real dynamo," Berg said. "She knows the steps she has to take to achieve her goals."

For Peterson, the goals are simple -- to provide affordable dental care to everyone, regardless of nationality or income.

"We have patients who call and say, 'We've called 20 places and no one would take me,'" Peterson said. "It makes you want to cry with them. ... It is an honor to serve them."

Jean Hopfensperger • 651-298-1553