Van Duyn Center: Dental Neglect Leaves Residents in Pain - NY
Federal inspectors visiting the facility in mid-April documented the case as part of a broader pattern of dental neglect, finding that residents had waited six months or longer just to receive dentures.
Resident 102, who is cognitively intact and lives independently with daily activities, first complained of a toothache in early 2025. A nurse practitioner ordered a dental consult on February 26. A dentist saw the resident on March 7 and identified tooth number 18 as needing extraction. A physician order the same day confirmed the referral. By April 2, an annual dental exam found the tooth had a cavity and required extraction. By April 6, the resident told inspectors they had not received any dental care. The tooth, they said, was cracked and rotting.
Ten days later, on April 16, the resident told inspectors that administration was supposed to be helping with insurance and would try to send them to a dentist in Rochester. "They were in agony with this tooth," the inspection report states.
Nobody had followed up.
Licensed Practical Nurse 11 told inspectors on April 9 that once staff place an order, they do not follow up on it. The facility's own dentist does not perform extractions. When a referral is needed, a ward clerk contacts an outside clinic. The nurse confirmed there had been an order placed, that the tooth had actually fractured and broken off, and that the extraction still had not happened.
Ward Clerk 111 told inspectors the holdup involved an insurance problem. The facility was trying to get Resident 102 into a dental office in Rochester. No timeline was given. No resolution had been reached.
The inspection report noted that a dental order for Resident 102 had been placed on March 7, 2024, a full year before inspectors arrived. The tooth had been deteriorating ever since.
The dental failures at Van Duyn extended beyond one resident. Inspectors found that other residents had waited six months or more just to receive dentures. The process, inspectors noted, involves impression taking, bite registration, a try-on, and delivery. Facility staff told inspectors that some dental procedures had been delayed because equipment was broken, but then acknowledged that broken equipment was not needed for dentures. Inspectors concluded there was no adequate explanation for why the process had taken so long.
The facility did not dispute that the delays occurred.
Inspectors cited the violations under New York state health regulations and rated the level of harm as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, with few residents affected. That classification sits near the lower end of the federal severity scale. It does not describe what it feels like to have a fractured tooth breaking apart in your mouth for more than a year while staff acknowledge they stopped tracking whether anyone ever made the appointment.
Resident 102 was still waiting.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Van Duyn Center For Rehabilitation and Nursing from 2025-04-18 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
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Last verified: October 27, 2026 · Our methodology
Van Duyn Center For Rehabilitation And Nursing in SYRACUSE, NY was cited for neglect violations during a health inspection on April 18, 2025.
Resident 102, who is cognitively intact and lives independently with daily activities, first complained of a toothache in early 2025.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.