LEWISTON – Maine authors Stephen and Tabitha King have donated thousands of dollars to help a local health agency provide dental services to uninsured children.

Community Clinical Services announced this week that the Kings have given the agency $25,000 to fund a new dental program at its B Street Health Center.

Located at the corner of Bates and Birch streets, the family health center opened in October 2003 to serve people in Lewiston-Auburn who weren’t receiving adequate health care due to lack of insurance, transportation or other socioeconomic barriers. Patients of the center pay on a sliding scale.

Knowing that Maine faces a serious shortage of dentists who accept Medicaid, officials at Community Clinical Services, which is an affiliate of Sisters of Charity Health Systems, wanted to do something to assure that people without private insurance no longer had to wait months or years for a dentist appointment.

In June, the agency added dental care to the services offered at the health center. The new dental program is staffed by a full-time dental hygienist, who does cleanings, sealings and fluoride treatments.

A dentist visits the center one day a week to do more extensive work.

The money from the Kings has helped pay for furniture and equipment needed for the dental program, a spokeswoman for Sisters of Charity Health Systems said.

More information about the dental program may be obtained by calling 753-5400.