Dental Health Matters is a CDA initiative that links programs and services that support improved access to dental care with community stakeholders—oral healthcare and medical organizations, policymakers and the general public—who have an interest in making a difference in their communities.
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Working together, this coalition can effect change on the access-to-care front. Why? Because Dental Health Matters.
Health First: Dental Is Essential
The CDA launched an initiative through Dental Health Matters in November 2017 to help tell the stories of Coloradans who have been helped by the Medicaid dental benefit. Health First: Dental Is Essential highlights the program’s positive effect on those with Medicaid coverage with first-person accounts that show how life-changing the benefit has been for many in the state. Take a minute to read and share their stories, or follow the Dental Health Matters Facebook page and Twitter account.
What Does Dental Health Matters Support?
One of Clinica Family Health’s pediatric patients receives an oral health exam during a recent visit to the Pecos Dental Clinic.
Access to Dental Care
- Dental-Medical Integration: Across Colorado, dental-medical integration has created dental homes in communities in need. Clinica Family Health Home, Walsh Dental Clinic Springfield Satellite and Marillac Clinic are just three examples of oral healthcare and medical professionals who work together to provide a whole healthcare experience for patients.
- Rural Dental Centers: Dr. Arnold Cullum of Colorado Springs, Colo., has taken it upon himself, with the help of his business partner and nonprofit consultant Annette Zacharias, to make a difference in Colorado communities with no immediate access to dental care—via the mobile dental clinic Rural Dental Centers.
Community Water Fluoridation
- Colorado Fluoride Facts: Colorado Fluoride Facts is a public service project dedicated to helping Coloradans better understand the facts and benefits of community water fluoridation. The site is maintained through partnership between the CDA and Oral Health Colorado.
Volunteer-based Dental Clinics
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A dentist looks at images of a patient’s teeth with her during the 2016 Colorado Mission of Mercy.
Colorado Mission of Mercy: The Colorado Mission of Mercy (COMOM) provides quality dental services, at no cost, to individuals of all ages who cannot afford and access dental care; eliminating dental pain, promoting oral health, creating smiles, and providing oral health education.
- Follow COMOM on Facebook.
- Give Kids a Smile: Through the ADA Foundation’s Give Kids A Smile program, launched nationally by the American Dental Association in 2003, more than 5 million underserved children have received free oral health services. These free services are provided by approximately 10,000 dentists annually, along with 30,000 other dental team members.
- Follow Give Kids a Smile on Facebook.