The Gloucester-Mathews Care Clinic is suspending its onsite dental program, effective today, due in large part to a substantial reduction in funding, according to the clinic’s interim executive director Dave Burns.

He said the clinic is working on securing a number of volunteer dentists in order to be able to offer the program again in the future.

According to Burns, the onsite dental program is running a deficit of about $135,000 per year. He said it has proved to be too expensive to have the dentist and two dental assistants there for the three days a week the dental clinic has been operating. He said the clinic has been averaging about eight patients each day it is open.

“A lot of people who are seen need some pretty major things,” Burns said, including dentures and crowns. “With those types of needs, we haven’t been able to serve as many people.”

He said the GMCC’s dental clinic that has been offered at Riverside Convalescent Center in ...