Press Release

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kaylyn Kendall Dines
www.umdnj.edu
(973) 972-7276

UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School
Dental Faculty from UMDNJ To Provide Care at Matheny's New Dental Center

An open house is scheduled for a new dental center at the Matheny School and Hospital where dental services will be provided for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The event will take place on Tuesday, July 16, at 11 a.m. at Matheny Hospital's main building, Main Street, Peapack.

This new full-service facility will be staffed by faculty from the UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School and will provide preventive dental care and treatment to children and adults with medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, mental retardation, Lesch-Nyhan disease and Down syndrome.

Dr. Maxine Strickland, assistant professor of general dentistry at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School, will provide a variety of services including: teeth cleaning, dental fillings, X-rays, extractions and behavioral management. The Matheny School and Hospital provides comprehensive habilitation services to people with developmental disabilities.

Dr. Cosmo DeSteno, associate dean for clinical affairs at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School, said, "We are enthusiastic about our cooperative arrangement between New Jersey Dental School and Matheny, a private hospital with an excellent reputation."

Prior to the opening of the new center, patients were treated in a mobile unit provided by Colgate-Palmolive Company. Dr. Anthony Volpe, vice president of clinical dental research at Colgate-Palmolive Company, was instrumental in arranging for this interim dental center on wheels. Colgate-Palmolive is donating opti-power toothbrushes to the new center. Opti-power toothbrushes are essential in treating patients who are at risk for aspiration.

While the dental center will serve the tri-state area, the clients will primarily reside in six counties in north and central New Jersey: Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Warren.

Delta Dental Plan of New Jersey has presented Matheny with a $150,000 capital gift for this initiative. In addition, the New Jersey Health Initiatives Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has donated $394,000 to help establish the dental center.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) comprises the state's only three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of nursing, a school of health related professions and a school of public health on campuses in Newark, Piscataway/New Brunswick, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ also operates University Hospital in Newark and University Behavior HealthCare. It is affiliated with more than 200 health care and educational institutions throughout the state.

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