Breaking Down Barriers - Access to Oral Health
Most Americans have access to the best oral health care in the world and, as a result, enjoy excellent oral health. But tens of millions still do not, owing to such factors as poverty, geography, lack of oral health education, language or cultural barriers, fear of dental care and the belief that people who are not in pain do not need dental care.
The ADA believes that all Americans deserve good oral health. We are committed to helping dentists, with their teams of allied personnel, provide the best level of care to all Americans who seek it; to increasing the prevalence of oral health literacy, which both prevents disease and educates the public as to how:
- to get healthy and, more important, how to stay healthy;
- to ensuring that when care is needed it is provided; and
- to helping government and the private sector work together to end what former Surgeon General David Satcher famously called a “silent epidemic” of untreated oral disease.
The American Dental Association has released several in series of papers examining the challenges and solutions to bringing good oral health to the millions of Americans-including as many as one-quarter of the nation's children-who lack access to dental care, many of them suffering with untreated disease. At its essence, the "Breaking Down Barriers" series is part of a larger effort by the ADA to move the conversation away from rancorous debates over the scope of practice of various workforce models, and toward the much more significant barriers and solutions to improving oral health.
Download the ADA Series of Papers:
- Breaking Down Barriers to Oral Health for All Americans: The Role of Finance (PDF/1.7MB)
- Breaking Down Barriers to Oral Health for All Americans: The Role of Workforce (PDF)
- Breaking Down Barriers to Oral Health for All Americans: Repairing the Tattered Safety Net (PDF)
