In the News

The new information doesn't look good for Florida. A newly released report shows children ages 14 and younger are using hospital emergency rooms to treat non-traumatic dental care. The study by CareQuest Institute for Oral Health says Florida is the worst in the country for children. Read the full story here.

More than 17,600 children visited Florida’s Emergency Rooms for non-traumatic dental conditions and and additional 3,500 children and adults had to be admitted for life-threatening infections, according to 2021 federal hospital care data compiled by CareQuest Institute, a national nonprofit.

The workplace is evolving rapidly. Hybrid work models are becoming the norm, as I tell the dozens of leaders who contact me every month to figure out their future of work plans.

The official end of the COVID-19 public health emergency has kicked off a nationwide "unwinding" of coverage that had previously been renewing automatically. This includes pandemic-era Medicaid dental coverage which had been used by almost 14 million Americans, including over 2.3 million people in my native California. Read the full story here.

A recent report released by CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a national nonprofit dedicated to making dental care more accessible, found that approximately 60 to 75 percent of pregnant people experience oral health issues that raise the likelihood of poor birth outcomes and major complications.  

A visual report from the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health in 2021 explores reasons why it believes teledentistry is here to stay. Read the full story here.

Myechia Minter-Jordan, president and CEO of the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, moderated the panel and asked the panelists what the business case was for correcting the inequity trends. Read the full story here.

"According to data from CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, where I am CEO and president, 77 million adults in the U.S. lack dental benefits. Medicaid dental coverage for adults is one of the few options available for low-income families who are seeking oral health care. Yet 47 state Medicaid programs do not offer dental benefits sufficient to maintain optimal oral health."

And plenty of people are paying out-of-pocket: Some 77 million American adults did not have dental insurance last year, according to a survey on inequities in oral health care run by the nonprofit CareQuest Institute for Oral Health.  Read the full article. 

In contrast, earlier this year CareQuest Institute for Oral Health®, a non-profit focused on contributing to a better national oral health system, released a report suggesting several oral health risks associated with the use of e-cigarettes. Among these health risks, says the report, are gum disease, dental decay, bone loss, and hairy tongue. The paper said that medical professionals need to educate their patients about these risks, however it did not compare the relative benefits for users when they switch from smoking cigarettes.