Letters are going out to dental patients this week to let the community know the Northwest Colorado Health Dental Clinic operating inside South Routt Medical Center in Oak Creek will be closing Jan. 28 and moving services to clinics in Steamboat Springs and Craig.
The leadership at South Routt Medical Center decided that the space used by the dental clinic since 2018 needs to be utilized by the medical clinic.
“As South Routt Medical Center utilizes our space to grow and expand their medical services, we will need to close our Oak Creek Dental Clinic on Jan. 28, 2026,” according to the letter to patients from Northwest Colorado Health. “We are grateful for their partnership and look forward to continuing to see our dental patients at one of our other locations to help you stay healthy and keep your dental care on track.”
Kathryn Schlatter, manager of the South Routt Health Service District, said the planned, grant-funded expansion and renovation project will add 832 square feet of new space and renovate approximately 2,898 square feet of existing space, with completion expected during 2027. The goal of the expansion “is to enhance the patient and community experience, meet the district’s ongoing needs and support our long-term service goals,” Schlatter said.
The medical district manager noted the construction plans remain in the “building program and design phase, and final plans and approvals have not yet been completed.”
Schlatter said UCHealth Sports Med physical therapy services inside the South Routt Medical Center also will relocate beginning in April to a new location at the South Routt Community Center.
To help patients during the change in service locations, Northwest Colorado Health will be adding dental services days for children through the agency’s Dental Bus to serve students on location at South Routt Elementary School in Yampa and at the combined middle and high school campus in Oak Creek.
Starting in fall 2025, the dental bus was scheduled at the South Routt schools one Wednesday per month, with limitations due to a shortage of dental hygienists, said Suzi Mariano, Northwest Colorado Health chief marketing and development officer.
“We have recently hired a school-based health dental hygienist and are working on plans to increase days in all communities including South Routt,” Mariano said. “We will have the potential for one to two more days per month at South Routt schools, depending on demand.”
The existing dental clinic at the Northwest Colorado Health offices at 940 Central Park Drive in Steamboat has been open daily, but the nonprofit health agency will have more dental providers on-site in Steamboat when the Oak Creek clinic closes. The agency operates the only dental practices in both Routt and Moffat counties that accept Medicaid patients of all ages, Mariano said.
“We will have 37 additional appointment slots per week in Steamboat with the existing three chairs,” Mariano explained. “Once we add a fourth chair, more slots will be available. In South Routt, we only had 23 appointment slots per week.”
In October, the active patient list for the dental office inside South Routt Medical Center reported 588 patients during the previous 18 months. Of those patients, 323 people showed a ZIP code from Oak Creek, Phippsburg, Yampa or Toponas, and 230 patients had been seen solely in the dental location in Oak Creek.
Mariano said 161 of those patients seen in Oak Creek were children 18 and younger who could be served via increased hours of the mobile dental unit at the schools.
“We encourage you to continue to seek care as delaying care can cause problems such as pain, infection, dental decay or tooth loss,” Northwest Colorado Health advised patients in the letter this week.
Northwest Colorado Health currently employs three full-time dentists — Kelsey Majors, Kevin Sullivan and Reanna Sullivan — and have two other dentists that fill in as needed. Majors and Reanna Sullivan, who had served the South Routt community for 6 1/2 years, will continue to serve patients at the agency’s other locations.
To schedule a dental appointment at the Steamboat or Craig locations, patients can call 970-824-8000. To schedule a school-based health dental appointment for a child, families can call 970-846-4426.
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