Dental Clinic

The VAHS Dental Clinic is in its 15th year of operation. With the support of administrative staff and a full-time dentist, services are provided by dentists, specialists, hygienists, and assistants.

Our Dental Clinic offers preventative and urgent services to patients with little or no dental coverage; it is the lowest barrier option to address basic dental needs for people in the Lower Mainland.

Support our work

We are grateful for the generosity of our volunteers, students, donors, and community members who make our operations possible.

We are always looking for volunteers for all positions within our Clinic. For more information, please be in touch via the contact information on this page.

To donate to the Dental Clinic, please click the donate button on the right side of this page, or click here to donate through Canada Helps. The Canada Helps page is not a payment option for treatment.

Current operating hours

Treatments offered

• Emergency Exams for "CURRENT PATIENTS ONLY".    Any other exam request from a Non-Paitnet will be treated as a "New Patient Exam" at the office.
• Screenings and Assessments: exams (including emergency), cancer screenings, prescriptions, X-rays (including Panoramic), and CT Scans 
• Hygiene (cleanings, oral hygiene instructions)
• Cosmetic treatments (teeth whitening)
• Dental Fillings (white fillings ONLY) and Dental Sealants
• Endodontic treatments (simple and complex root canals)
• Simple/surgical extractions
• Major restorative treatments (inlays and onlays, crowns, bridges, and veneers) 
• Straumann or Astra implants (for select cases), and bone grafts
• Nightguards & Sportguards
• Sedation: Gas (Nitrous / Laughing Gas), IV sedation (for selective cases), Oral (Triazolam and Lorazepam)
• Basic Orthodontic Services with Clear Aligners  (SureSmile - similar to Invisalign)
• Limited Services with Registered Specialist
  • Basic gum surgeries
  • Limited Children (Pediatric) Services with Pediatric Dentist - Specialist. 
  • Limited Prosthodontics Services with Prosthodontist Dentist - Specialist. 
  • Limited Oral Surgeons Services with Oral Surgeon Dentist - Specialist
• Counselling Services (dental trauma, fear, anxiety)
• Minor Dental Lab Services
• First Not-For-Profit Clinic providing these services in the province  
  • Painless Dentistry - NO NEEDLE with SOLEA laser.  First Not-For-Profit Clinic that provides these services in the province. Pain/needle-free fillings, crown lengthening, tissue recontouring, and hard/soft tissue management.
  • One day root canal treatments with GENTLE WAVE.  This depends on the complexity of the treatment itself or infections present before the visit.

Women's Mobile Clinic (development in progress):

• Screenings and Assessments: exams (including emergency), cancer screenings, X-rays, and digital intraoral scans/images
• Dental health promotion and community outreach
• Coming soon: 
  • Hygiene (cleanings, oral hygiene instructions)
  • Dental Fillings
  • Simple Extractions

Treatments that we "DO NOT OFFER"

• Metal fillings are no longer available at the office.

• Full sedation

• Orthodontic treatments with braces

• Major gum surgeries

• Full and partial dentures 

Root canals and surgical treatments

Not all root canal and surgical treatments are the same, therefore special considerations will be given to complex extractions, complex/multiple root canals and re-treatments, and apical chronic tooth infections.

General patient intake policy

• Everybody is welcome. Any BC resident (indigenous and non-indigenous) as well as people from other provinces, countries, international visitors, and students.

• Patients with dental coverage are asked to bring their IDs. No exceptions are granted. Examples of IDs: care card number, Indigenous status card, parole (ID card and officer's contact information), interim federal health program (IFHP-UCI #), healthy kids' program, dental insurance, etc.

• For patients without dental coverage, our Internal Fee Guide will be suggested at the time of the screening.

• Any patient's needs will be evaluated based on the Dental Clinic's daily capacity and budget limitations.

• We reserve the right to deny any treatment at any time. We practice Zero Tolerance to inappropriate behavior towards staff/volunteers and other patients.

• We reserve the right to screen patients and prioritize treatments.

• We do not grant any type of preference to specific patients or treatments.  We are here to help and we help everybody as much as we can in the same way. 

• Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/dental/dental-care-plan.html).  The Government of Canada / CRA will check eligibility and coverage, individuals are responsible for their registration and get familiar with the coverage percentage and services available. 

Booking an appointment

The first appointment at the clinic will be a new patient exam, and we charge up to $170 CAD for exams, x-rays, and panoramic x-rays. Any other cost estimates will be given after the examination. We do not provide estimates over the phone or email. 

Please call or email to book an appointment and provide the following information:

• Full legal name

• Care card and/or coverage information

• Phone number

• Email address

• Preferred contact method

Our office has an automated confirmation system; every patient will need to confirm their appointment either by Phone, Email, or Text (no exceptions). If confirmation is not given, the office will consider this as a potential no-show and will cancel the appointment. 

Cancelling an appointment

48 Business/Working hours notice is needed for canceling or rescheduling appointments. There is a no-show or last-minute cancellation fee of $60 CAD (per hour of appointment) administrative charge at the next appointment or day of cancellation. 

If two consecutive “no-shows" are recorded in our system, our office reserves the right to deny further appointments and remove the patient from the waiting list. A formal dismissal letter will be sent either by mail or email to confirm this action. This letter will follow the guidelines of local regulatory bodies. 

Waiting list

Currently, our office is booking some treatments 2–3 months in advance. We understand that some treatments might be urgent. Due to operational limitations and the high demand for services, we may not be able to fulfill all requests promptly.

Payment information

For full information, please contact our front desk.

Methods of payment include:

• Debit or Credit Card (Visa, Amex, MasterCard).  $ 0.25 CAD will be applied to every POS machine transaction.

• Cash

• Cheques issued to Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society (Memo: Dental Clinic payment) 

• Online payments: Include Dental Clinic payment in the memo section. Please save the email confirmation as proof of payment.

• Some dental treatments might need a 50% deposit in advance to ensure appointment visits and commitment. 

• Despite that, we are a not-for-profit and we don't balance bills, if we enter into a "Financial Support Program" with our internal fees (lower than the private fee guide).  It is the PATIENT'S responsibility to pay in full for those services. 

Fee schedule for individuals under government programs:

• If treatment has been provided and patients have given implied consent / visited facility / received treatment - consultation. We bill each government program without any exceptions.

• It is the patient's responsibility to bring their IDs and any coverage information (Ministry, Status). We will not accept any patient without this information.

• It is the patient's responsibility to cover any outstanding cost for treatments that are not covered under their respective programs. Especially those treatments where the office entered into a service agreement to go above and beyond the coverage and internal write-off for services. 

• Our office reserves the right to deny treatment beyond our office capacity and budget limitations.

Office forms

• Click HERE for Referral Form (PDF)
• Click HERE for Medical History Form (PDF)
• Click HERE for IV Sedation Info Sheet (PDF)
• Click HERE for COVID-19 Form (PDF)
• Click HERE for Patient Resource Sheet (PDF)