No-cost children's dental clinic opens in Cary, expanding Wake County program

A new dental clinic in Cary is expanding free preventative dental care services for uninsured children in Wake County.

The no-cost clinic, Regional Smiles, opened Wednesday at the Wake County Western Health and Human Services Center located at 111 James Jackson Ave. in Cary.

Instead of a ribbon cutting, the expansion was celebrated with a "floss cutting" at 8:30 a.m.

There are three other Regional Smiles clinics in Wake County. Locations opened at the Northern Regional Center in Wake Forest in February 2023, the Southern Regional Center in Fuquay-Varina in October 2023 and Eastern Regional Center in Zebulon in July 2024. 

"Regional Smiles allows access to dental care for residents of underserved areas of the county who may not be able to visit the Raleigh location," the county announced in a release.

Additionally, free dental services are offered at "Smiles at Sunnybrook," another no-cost dental clinic at Wake County’s Public Health Center on Sunnybrook Road in Raleigh.

According to Wake County, the Smiles at Sunnybrook clinic has served more than 7,000 children since October 2017.