The Connecticut State Dental Association (CSDA) announced recently that the State has for the second year in a row earned an “A” in the annual Pew Children’s Dental Campaign Report, a national program of The Pew Charitable Trusts that seeks to increase access to dental care for children. The report ranks the 50 states based on various measures for improving care. Connecticut is one of seven states to receive the top score.

 

“Oral health is critical to a child’s development, health and overall well-being. With many people in the U.S lacking proper access to dental care it is imperative that the State continue to work toward improving access,” said Dr. Tatiana Barton, president of the CSDA. “The CSDA has worked tirelessly to increase access to high-quality dental care for Connecticut residents. Although we are pleased with our ‘A,’ we still have some work to do in order to maintain the Medicaid rates for children and to ensure that adults and the elderly also have access to dental care.”

 

The annual report, “The State of Children’s Dental Health: Making Coverage Matter,” examines each of the 50 states and grades them based on how well they employ the “eight proven and promising policy approaches to ensure dental health and access to care for disadvantaged children.” Connecticut was shown to have met or exceeded the national benchmarks in 6 of the 8 areas including the percentage of residents with access to fluorinated community water supplies and the number of Medicaid-enrolled children receiving care.

 

The Pew report makes clear that none of the states that received an “A” were able to meet all of the benchmarks for a perfect performance. The report stated that only four out of ten children enrolled in the Connecticut Dental Health Partnership program received oral health care during the last available data year, which was 2009. It is important to note that these numbers are much better than two years ago. In fact, utilization rates for children in the Medicaid program in Connecticut have been steadily increasing and are some of the highest in the nation. The CSDA believes that through increased education about the Dental Health Partnership program, it can connect more families and their kids to the participating dentists in their area and continue to improve this statistic going forward.

 

“The fact that Connecticut received an “A” for the second year in a row demonstrates our commitment to children’s dental health and access to care.” Dr. Barton continued, “It is also a major motivator for us to work even harder to ensure that people take advantage of the care that is available to them. We will continue to fight to expand Medicaid coverage and promote strategies that improve oral health. Many children and adults still go without adequate care; it is our goal to focus on long-term solutions to ensure that this trend doesn’t continue.”