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Early in her career as a dental assistant, Mary Lynne Davis, CRDH, had the privilege of working with a dentist who was deeply committed to creating a comfortable, caring experience for every patient. His passion left a lasting impression on her, shaping the way she approached patient care throughout her career as an assistant, a hygienist, a mentor, and now a research coordinator. 

It’s a nationwide problem for our nation’s heroes: Veterans struggle to get access to oral health care. For a veteran to get dental benefits from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), they need to have been a former prisoner of war, be 100% disabled, or have a service-related dental injury.

By Beverly Bruno, MPH, Health Informatics Developer, CareQuest InstituteWhat makes a story stick isn’t always the plot — it’s the way it unfolds. At the 2025 Tableau Conference, where data accessibility and creativity led every conversation, it became clear: dashboards and data sets can be more than static displays. They can be dynamic stories, each with its own rhythm, architecture, and power to connect. 

Uncertainty? Yes, plenty of that. Apprehension? A bit. Anxiety? There was some of that too. None of those words, though, sum up the mood, feeling, and spirit of the 2025 National Oral Health Conference (NOHC). The word that does? Resilience. 

For Jessica Robertson, DMD, relocating from Southern California to rural Arizona has taken some adjusting. “Moving to a small town was quite different,” she says, “not having a mall just around the corner or the amusement park an hour away.” Some of the clinics where she provides care are even farther. 

Leaning the chair back. The sounds of dental instruments. Closing the door to the room. These may seem like normal experiences at a dental office, but for some patients who have experienced trauma, they can trigger stress and anxiety. And if those triggers are ignored by the dental team, the patient could be retraumatized. 

Dental therapy is expanding as more states authorize dental therapists to practice. But there are still a lot of questions when it comes to dental therapists’ capabilities, employment, and education. 

Discrimination. Cost. Education. Employment. Together, they are four powerful socioeconomic factors that act as barriers to adequate oral health for millions of adults in the United States. The newest CareQuest Institute report, Does Our Oral Health Care System Welcome Everyone? dives into those factors in great — and concerning — detail. 

By Melissa Burroughs, Director, Public Policy, CareQuest InstituteFor far too many people in America, good oral health is too expensive and out of reach. Too many families must make impossible trade-offs between getting the care they need and going into debt or putting food on the table. As we head into 2025, we need to ensure that policymakers understand the importance of oral health and its impact on our overall health and on our finances. 

Oral health is overall health. It’s more than a mantra, and nothing drives that fact home more than the research done in 2024 by CareQuest Institute. A few key findings from popular reports published this year show: