Expanded Access

Improving the oral health of all means providing access to dental care for all. And we have a lot of work to do.
 
To start, more than 74 million Americans lack access to dental coverage — and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health care systems and resulted in millions of lost jobs. Many of those 74 million are a result of socioeconomic factors and racial inequalities that persist throughout the country and contribute to worse health outcomes for certain populations. More specifically:
 

• 43 percent of Americans live in rural areas that lack access to dental care.
• Black adults are 22% less likely than white adults to have had a routine dental visit in the past year.
• 4 in 10 Black and Latino adults reside in one of the 14 states where Medicaid’s adult dental benefits cover no services or emergency-only care.

 
To start solving this problem, we need to break down the complex barriers that keep people from accessing dental care and think differently about how we deliver oral care.
 
Breaking Down Barriers
Americans face many barriers to accessing quality health care, beyond just lack of insurance. Issues such as a lack of transportation, the inability to take time off from work for an appointment, limited numbers of oral care providers in an area, language and cultural barriers, and lack of adequate coverage all contribute to the problem.
 
A 2019 research report, Reversible Decay: Oral Health is a Public Health Problem We Can Solve, found widespread agreement on the problems with our failing oral health system — including these systematic, financial and emotional barriers to access and care. Fortunately, it also found that dentists, patients, physicians, employers and Medicaid dental administrators agree on solutions.



The solutions are all rooted in the understanding that oral health is an integral part of overall health.

Why We Must Preserve School-Based Oral Health Care for Children School-based dental services have become a crucial way to connect low-income students, particularly students of color, with oral health care and education. And ensuring every child has access to oral health care is a key to reducing the deep racial disparities in health care. Read blog » Poor Families Spend 10 Times More Families in poverty or that have low incomes have greater unmet dental need and spend a significant portion of their available annual income on dental care. Read report » Education & Resources to Navigate COVID-19 Americans lacked equitable access to oral care before 2020. And the COVID-19 pandemic has made that problem even worse. Our growing collection of COVID-19 continuing education and resources provide practical guidance on how to improve access and keep patients safe.   Learn more »

• Medical-Dental Integration: Moving toward an approach to care that integrates and coordinates dental medicine into primary care and behavioral health has demonstrated positive patient outcomes, along with reductions in total cost of care. Many community health programs and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are already doing this — and proving that it works.

• Teledentistry: The ability to virtually deliver oral health and education services helps connect providers to each other or directly with patients in a variety of settings. It has become especially popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, with patients reporting feeling overwhelmingly positive about their teledentistry experience. It can benefit a broad range of populations, including Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, the uninsured, underserved and rural populations, people with urgent dental care needs, and people who fear going to the dentist.

• Providing care in non-traditional settings. Going beyond the dentist’s or doctor’s office means providing care in non-traditional settings, including schools, nursing homes, pharmacies, or community centers. The DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement estimates that nearly 1 million Medicaid-enrolled children nationwide rely on schools to access basic preventive dental care.