Sec. 3. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The United States must establish a nationwide and comprehensive approach to address the lack of access to needed dental care and reduce oral health disparities. Since 2000, when the Surgeon General of the United States called dental disease a silent epidemic , there has been increasing but still insufficient attention given to addressing oral health issues. Dental caries, commonly known as cavities, are the most common chronic disease for children in the United States.
Additionally, 25 percent of American adults who have attained 65 years of age have lost all of their teeth. Untreated oral health problems contribute to an increased risk for serious medical conditions such as diabetes, hospital-acquired pneumonia, and poor birth outcomes. According to a report by the Surgeon General of the United States, students miss more than 51,000,000 hours of school and employed adults lose more than 164,000,000 hours of work each year due to dental disease and dental visits.
More than 47,000,000 people live in a dental Health Professional Shortage Area where the number of dentists for the population size is inadequate and people may face significant challenges in accessing oral health care. While the lack of access to oral health services is a national problem, those who are most likely to remain underserved are individuals with low incomes, racial and ethnic minorities, pregnant women, older adults, individuals with special needs, and individuals living in rural communities.
More than 1 in 4 Americans do not have dental health insurance which is far greater than the number of individuals who lack general health insurance. The Medicare program and the Department of Veterans Affairs do not provide dental coverage to the majority of their beneficiaries, and States can elect whether to provide dental coverage to adults under the Medicaid program. A minority of practicing dentists in the United States provide care to individuals enrolled in Medicaid, and a very small percentage of dentists devote a substantial part of their practice towards caring for individuals who are underserved.
The United States spends more than $111,000,000,000 on dental care every year. Between 2008 and 2010, more than 4,000,000 patients visited hospital emergency departments for assistance with dental conditions, accounting for 1 percent of all emergency room visits during such period and at a cost of $2,700,000,000.