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Dental pain is one of the most common—and most preventable—health problems for kids in our state. Yet California ranks near the bottom nationally for children’s oral health and access to care.  California ranks 47th in the nation for children with untreated cavities, with 15% of kids affected each year.  Fewer than half of children on Medi-Cal visit the dentist each year , well below the state’s own 60 percent target.  Ten counties in California have no Medi-Cal Dental provid

Dental services for 30,000 under-resourced adults, kids and seniors are at risk in our community. The federal government is threatening to cut Medicaid benefits – which includes offering affordable dental care to low-income people – to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. These cuts would affect 10 million people statewide, all of whom rely on Medicaid benefits (known as Medi-Cal in California). The proposed cuts are shortsighted and fail to recognize the long-term human impact of

Los Angeles Times — Eight years after an independent state watchdog agency harshly criticized the state for failing to provide dental care to low-income children, California has failed to remedy the problem or fully implement the commission’s recommendations, according to a follow-up review published last week. The Little Hoover Commission found that less than half of the children in Medi-Cal received an annual dental visit in 2022 — 3% higher than when the initial report was