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Last month, the Oral Health Progress and Equity Network (OPEN) brought together 170 oral health advocates to discuss how to engage with candidates and the media this election season and raise oral health as a key issue. Experts in advocacy, community engagement, and media shared their insights and tips with attendees at the 2024 OPEN Advocacy Assembly. “It’s tough to find an issue like this in today’s America that has broad popularity,” said Peter Mitchell, chief insights officer at Marketing for Change. 

By Caroline McLeod, MS, RDH, Value-Based Solutions Manager at CareQuest Institute 

By Kaz Rafia, DDS, MBA, MPH, Chief Dental Officer and Executive Vice President of Health Equity, CareQuest Institute As we began creating self-paced courses for CareQuest Institute, we took a closer look at terminology in oral health care — terms like “value-based payment,” “fee-for-service,” “interoperability,” and “care coordination.” One phrase continued to give us pause and generate thoughtful discussion: social determinants of health. 

By Stacey Auger, MPH, policy consultant, CareQuest Institute Oral health has been in the national spotlight recently thanks to a May 16 hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). The focus of the hearing was the dental crisis facing the US and how to make dental care more affordable and available to all. 

As a filmmaker, Paul Gibbs tells other people’s stories for a living. He didn’t know his own story — about trying to access oral health care — would have such a profound impact. “My dental care experience turned out to be much more expensive, invasive, and painful than it needed to be,” Gibbs says. “And it was because while my doctors had recognized that oral health is part of the overall larger picture, my insurance didn’t.” 

In November 2020, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital (MVH) Dental Clinic, the only clinic on the island accepting Massachusetts Medicaid (MassHealth), closed, worsening health care disparities for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (WTGH). For many tribe members, including elders, removing local access to oral health care highlighted broader issues of limited provider availability, geographical isolation, and the challenges of traveling off-island for care. 

“If they had a job, they could get real insurance and afford to get their teeth fixed.” “People are lazy if they have state insurance. They’re not as educated as others.” “Anyone could go to the dentist if they wanted to. They are choosing not to or not prioritizing it.” These are common perceptions about patients who struggle to access oral health care — a frequent topic during Wisconsin Medical-Dental Integration (MDI) Advisory Council quarterly meetings. 

By Wai-Sum Leung, MS, RDH, and Stephanie Clester, MA, RDH As dental professionals and health care providers, we should recognize that every patient is unique in their care needs and will have specialized, unequal, treatment plans. In other words, dental clinics should promote health equity. 

Whether it’s supporting coalitions that advocate for Medicaid adult dental benefit expansion or awarding funds to help organizations provide oral health care to patients with developmental differences, the CareQuest Institute Philanthropy team invests strategically to promote healthy communities and improve the

More and more baby boomers turn 65 every day, the magic age of Medicare eligibility. Recent estimates predict that 95 million seniors and people with disabilities will count on Medicare for their health insurance by 2060.