Two dentists at the Penasco Dental Clinic have quit, claiming a lack of administrative support and a poor X-ray system, and a third dentist, Dr. George Olds, also has resigned as dental director for El Centro Family Health, the nonprofit agency that oversees the clinic, The Taos News reported.

Dr. Robert Daniels and Dr. Allison Levens told the paper that administrators' failure to back up professional staff or to deal with a poor-quality X-ray system that makes diagnoses difficult played a role in their decision to quit.

Olds told the News that those were the same issues that led him to resign as dental director.

Daniels said the poor performance of the X-ray system was an "unacceptable situation," saying X-rays taken at the clinic, digitally compressed and sent to a lab in Florida, can be unreadable when they come back to the clinic. "But the administration has refused to do anything about it."

Levens agreed, saying, "I couldn't diagnose from those X-rays. From a patient's perspective that's scary."

El Centro operates 15 medical clinics and two dental clinics in northern New Mexico, the News reported.

El Centro's CEO Lore Pease was unavailable for comment, and attempts to reach several board members were unsuccessful, according to the News.

The Penasco Dental Clinic takes Medicare and Medicaid patients and charges other patients on a sliding scale, the paper reported.

The clinic opened half a dozen years ago on N.M. 518 next to the Carson National Forest office and serves nearly 2,000 patients from the Penasco Valley and surrounding communities, the News said.

A new dentist, Dr. Art Cisneros, has filled one of the two vacancies, the paper reported.