HJAR May/Jun 2022

40 MAY / JUN 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS POLICY COLUMN POLICY ORALHEALTH is an important part of over- all health. The first-ever U.S. surgeon gen- eral’s report on oral health, released in 2000, declared that “oral healthmeans muchmore than healthy teeth” and “is essential to the general health and well-being of all Ameri- cans.” 1 Preventive oral care, like other types of preventive care, can reduce the risk of se- rious health issues. Problems such as tooth decay, gum disease and oral cancer are not always visible or painful in the early stages, so regular visits to a dentist — once or twice a year is a common recommendation among U.S. dental care providers — are key for early detection. Unfortunately, many Arkansans do not seek regular dental care, even if they have dental insurance. Anew study by theArkan- sas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI), oral health : A New Study by ACHI Shows Too Many in Arkansas Neglect It of which I am president and CEO, finds that fewer than a third of Arkansas adults with dental insurance visited a dentist in 2019 — and even fewer visited a dentist in 2020 during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. ACHI’s study, “Utilization of Dental Care AmongArkansas Children andAdults,”was funded by and developed in partnership with the Delta Dental of Arkansas Foun- dation and was not yet publicly available as of the press deadline for this column. ACHI’s team reviewed claims data in the All-Payer Claims Database, a part of the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initia- tive, and found that about 54% of Arkansans had dental insurance in 2019. Among those with insurance, only about 30% of adults used any dental services in 2019, and only about 51% of children used any dental ser- vices that year. Our study also found that use of dental services was lowest in rural areas in 2019, with about 37% of rural county residents visiting a dentist compared to 40% of urban county residents. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 had unprecedented impacts on the state’s healthcare system, including the de- livery of dental care. In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, in March 2020 theAr- kansas Department of Health called on den- tal offices to suspend non-urgent services. Dental offices were allowed to resume all services in May 2020, and dentists across the state adopted new operational protocols to protect patients and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Not surprisingly, our review