G-2309-19892

The Hispanic Dental Association (HDA) seeks to be the leading voice for Hispanic oral health, providing education, research, advocacy, and leadership for all healthcare professionals to promote the overall health of Hispanic and Latinx communities.

HDA is one of several partners funded by CareQuest Institute to advance equity within dentistry, rebalance power and increase diversity in the dental profession. During 2022 and 2023, the HDA Research team completed the initial description of oral health status, utilization of dental services, and workforce issues with the support of CareQuest Institute. As part of the process, in October 2022, the HDA Research Team convened a panel of experts to review the significant findings and challenges. Those recommendations, provided by more than 70 experts from the academia, public health field, and community work, were used throughout 2023 to understand the oral health needs of Hispanics in the U.S. The main recommendation from these communities of interest was to identify specific policies and interventions to improve oral health in the areas identified by the HDA report.

Aligned with this recommendation, HDA plans to draft policy recommendations and models of interventions to reduce health inequities among Hispanics. To begin the work, HDA will conduct a national oral health advocacy workshop during the 2024 HDA Annual Meeting (New York, June 21 and 22, 2024). The group will include local and national community health leaders, dental and health providers, academia, and government agencies. The workshop will develop a roadmap document prioritizing the national and state steps and actions and identify partners and processes to promote policy changes and interventions to address the gaps and problems identified in the 2023 white paper. The four principal policy areas involved in this advocacy effort will be (1) to strengthen dental coverage under the Medicaid program, (2) pathways to achieve the policy change to add dental to Medicare, (3) to increase US minority dental workforce, and (4) identify from state and federal level the ways to expand access to teledentistry in benefit of minorities. The Call-to-Action document will be open for comment in 2024 and will officially launch in 2025.

Additionally, HDA will continue to build out their state profiles, completing the remaining 40 states and Puerto Rico within this grant cycle. Each profile draws meaningful connections between oral and overall health, the Social Determinants of Health, and other health indicators to provide a living document that can be updated according to the community needs in each state.

The budget for this project represents 33% of the organization’s overall budget.