As a filmmaker, Paul Gibbs tells other people’s stories for a living. 

He didn’t know his own story — about trying to access oral health care — would have such a profound impact. 

“My dental care experience turned out to be much more expensive, invasive, and painful than it needed to be,” Gibbs says. “And it was because while my doctors had recognized that oral health is part of the overall larger picture, my insurance didn’t.” 

A particular moment stands out to Sarah Bedard Holland, the CEO of Virginia Health Catalyst, as when she realized she wanted to work in health care: 

“When I was in high school, someone who was very close to me was diagnosed with AIDS, and I had the opportunity to see firsthand how my community reacted to that,” Bedard Holland says. “I saw how the health care system responded to him, his diagnosis, and ultimate death. . . . I think it was that general injustice and inequity that really cemented for me that there was an opportunity to change things.” 

On a warm Saturday in November, dozens of vendors lined Dunkin’ Park in Hartford, Connecticut, for the Get Out the Vote Health Fair, where visitors could find information on health care resources and connect with community partners. One of those booths belonged to the Connecticut Oral Health Initiative (COHI) — an organization that advocates for oral health access, quality, and equity in the state.

Jennifer Harris, the senior health policy advocate at Alabama Arise, says no day is the same at her job.

“You may have someone that’s working over here to reduce tooth decay in school-age children, and then you may have someone in another part of the state that is looking at the accessibility for someone who’s disabled to be seen by a provider,” Harris says. “What I’m doing is creating a network where we can bring all our work together to really make strides in access when it comes to oral health.”

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.

Of the more than nine million veterans who are eligible for medical care through the VHA, approximately 1.8 million are also eligible for dental care. Among veterans eligible for dental care, a third use that benefit annually—inclusive of the community care network (CCN). The CCN is a private network of VA-affiliated providers available to eligible veterans who cannot get care in a VA facility due to long wait times or geographic distance. The PACT Act of 2022, considered to be the largest health care and benefit expansion in VA history, increased dental eligibility by 330,000 veterans.

According to CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, in 2023 nearly 68.5 million adults in the US lacked dental insurance. Based on the organization's State of Oral Health Equity in America survey, these projections may further surge by the end of 2023 because of the loss of coverage from other household members and the process of Medicaid redetermination. More adults are currently uninsured for dental care which leads to a rise in the number of people needing these plans.

A Missouri dentist is working to restore smiles to veterans for free. In a new article, featuring stats from a CareQuest report, he emphasizes the importance of veteran oral health.

Read the article and watch the video on KSHB-TV.