Making Medicaid child dental services work: a partnership in Washington state

Abstract

Eighty-one percent of general dentists and 86 percent of pediatric dentists who are members of the local dental society in Spokane County, Washington, participated in a pilot program to provide dental care in private offices to children up to 5 years of age from low-income families served by the Medicaid program. Outreach staff from the local public health agency recruited and enrolled families in the program. University faculty provided special training in the care of young children to the dentists participating in the program. In the program's first year, 37 percent of the enrolled children had made at least one visit to the dentist, in contrast to 12 percent of children who were not enrolled in the program.