Young children and families are experiencing stress when it comes to accessing oral health services and achieving good oral health. Here’s what it looks like:
Stress is not having access to dental insurance for you and your family because you can’t afford it.
- Did you know that about one third of Coloradans report having no dental insurance? Or that only 45% of those who don’t have dental insurance had a dental visit in the last year?
Stress is not having access to a dental provider in your county.
- Did you know that 57 of Colorado’s 64 counties are designated a Dental Health Professional Shortage Area by the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration?
Stress is not having access to optimally fluoridated water in your home or community.
- Did you know that kids in unfluoridated communities experience 2.5 times more tooth decay than people living in fluoridated communities?
There are community-based solutions happening across Colorado working hard to ensure that families experiencing barriers to accessing oral health services have their community to support them. At Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, we are proud to collaborate with local partners such as Chaffee County Oral Health, Grand Beginnings, or Valley-Wide Health Systems that are bringing oral health services and education to their communities – whether it be to a Head Start, community fair, or someone’s appointment with the Women Infant and Children (WIC) program office.
Our statewide partners also play an important role in larger systems change solutions. During the 2019 legislative session, the Colorado Children’s Campaign led a multi-partner effort to successfully pass HB19-1038 ensuring that pregnant women covered by Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+) now have a dental benefit. Certainly, progress is being made.
Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation addresses oral health inequities and supports community-based solutions that tackle them so that we can elevate the well-being of ALL Coloradans. Learn more at https://www.deltadentalcofoundation.org/.