Dental coverage, access & outcomes

Dental benefits coverage varies by age. For children ages 0-18, 53% have private dental benefits, 38% have dental benefits through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and 8% do not have dental benefits. For adults ages 19-64, 62% have private dental benefits, 16% have public dental benefits, and 22% have no dental benefits. For seniors ages 65 and older, 33% have private dental benefits, 12% have public dental benefits, and 56% have no dental benefits.

Because dental benefits for adults are optional at the state level, it should be noted that adults and seniors who are covered by public dental benefits may have limited, emergency only, or no coverage depending on their state's adult dental benefit program. See our national trends data & methods report (PDF) for more information.

Dental coverage for adults enrolled in Medicaid varies drastically from state to state. The Medicaid Adult Dental Coverage Checker by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health identifies where each state’s Medicaid adult dental benefits package falls on a continuum from "no dental benefits" to "extensive benefits."

Source: Medicaid Adult Dental Coverage Checker (CareQuest Institute for Oral Health).

Dentist participation in Medicaid varies by state. There are many ways to measure dentist participation in Medicaid, such as by enrollment in the program or by volume of patients.

For children ages 0-18, 63% of those with private dental insurance had at least one dental visit in 2022 compared to 44% with public insurance and 20% with no dental insurance. For adults ages 19-64, 53% with private dental insurance had at least one dental visit in 2022 compared to 24% with public insurance and 15% with no dental insurance. For seniors age 65 and older, 75% of those with private dental insurance had at least one dental visit in 2022 compared to 25% with public insurance and 43% with no dental insurance.

Patient age group and dental insurance status also correlates with the types of dental procedures obtained. The types of services that children covered by Medicaid received are comparable to the services received by privately insured children. Among adults, those with Medicaid benefits had higher shares of more invasive services, such as oral surgery procedures, while privately insured adults had higher shares of preventive services.

Sources: Dental care utilization among children and adults dashboard in Tableau.

National trends in dental care use, dental insurance coverage, and cost barriers (PDF) (HPI Report).

Comparative analysis of dental procedure mix in public and private dental benefits programs (JADA).

The Health Policy Institute has developed a tool for measuring access to dental care using geo-analytics for each state and the District of Columbia. Results report the percentage of publicly insured children living within a 15-minute travel time to at least one Medicaid/CHIP dentist per 2,000 publicly insured children as well as the percentage of overall population living within a 15-minute travel time to at least one dentist per 5,000 population. Data are as of 2015.

Source: Geographic access to dental care (State fact sheets).

In general, White children, adults, and seniors have higher dental care use than Black and Hispanic children, adults and seniors. For all age groups, Hispanics and Blacks are most likely to face cost barriers to dental care.

Source:  National trends in dental care use, dental insurance coverage, and cost barriers (PDF) (HPI Report).

About 1 in 5 adults (21.3%) have untreated dental caries, according to 2017-2020 data.

Sources: Update on the prevalence of untreated caries in the US adult population, 2017-2020 (JADA).

An estimated 42% of adults over age 30 suffered from untreated periodontal disease between 2009-2014. Results vary by gender, education level, income, and other factors.

Source: Periodontitis in US Adults (JADA).