In this article, published in the January 2022 issue of Journal of Public Health Dentistry, CareQuest Institute researchers assessed the cost implications of routine preventive dental care for approximately 186,000 Medicaid-eligible adults residing in states with a Medicaid adult dental benefit.
Researchers found that regular preventive dental visits were linked with lower dental costs, reduced emergency department visits for nontraumatic dental conditions, fewer dental-related opioid prescriptions, and fewer oral surgeries.
Compared to Medicaid enrollees who received five years of regular preventive dental care, Medicaid enrollees with no preventive dental visits were:
- eight times more likely to have a hospital emergency department visit for a nontraumatic dental condition
- seven times more likely to have oral surgery
- five to six times more likely to receive a dental-related opioid prescription
- more likely to be Black; Black Medicaid enrollees were half as likely as white enrollees to have had five years of preventive visits.
Read the article.
You may also be interested in:
- A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Oral Health Care Spending over the Life Span in Commercial- and Medicaid-Insured Populations, an article exploring one of the most comprehensive life course analyses of spending on oral health care, using data from more than 31 million Medicaid claims and more than 45 million commercial or Medicare supplemental claims.
- Medicaid Adult Dental Benefit Toolkit for Advocates, a toolkit designed to help advocates educate policymakers and other stakeholders to preserve and strengthen Medicaid adult dental benefits.
- Recent Trends in Hospital Emergency Department Visits for Non-Traumatic Dental Conditions, a visual report analyzing how much it costs for patients to visit EDs for non-traumatic dental conditions.