In Need of Treatment: Cost, Inequities, and Our Oral Health System in 2023

For the third consecutive year, CareQuest Institute conducted its annual State of Oral Health Equity in America (SOHEA) survey with 5,260 adults — the largest survey of its kind to study knowledge, attitudes, experiences, and behaviors related to oral health. For the third consecutive year, the findings — for example, 87 million adults in the US don’t have dental insurance — point to a system that is still struggling with disparities and challenges.

But there’s hope, as shown by the many efforts underway to improve access and equity.

Join CareQuest Institute researchers and well-known health care journalist Mary Otto, author of Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America, for a discussion about the latest research on America’s oral health. The panel will explore what has changed in the data in the last three years, how oral health has rebounded since the pandemic, and why discrimination and uneven costs are still prevalent. They’ll also highlight positive trends and how providers, policymakers, and advocates can use the research in their daily work.