Blog

In partnership with thought leaders, health care providers, patients, and local, state, and federal stakeholders, CareQuest Institute of Oral Health champions oral health transformation. Each day is filled with mission-driven, meaningful initiatives that aim to create an oral health system that is accessible, equitable, and integrated. Who leads that work from inside the virtual walls of CareQuest Institute? And why are they so invested in the mission?

Without regular, preventive dental care, early tooth decay or gum disease can worsen, hurting our overall health and increasing treatment costs. But many people can’t access the preventive services they need.

By Stacey Auger, MPH, policy consultant, CareQuest Institute

In early 2022, 700 Afghan refugees arrived in central Iowa, trying to settle into a community unlike any they’d ever seen. A strange landscape. A sea of unfamiliar faces. A new life.And they had 90 days to get settled.

When patients fill out a form at a dentist’s or doctor’s office, do they see themselves represented? For individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or have other sexual orientations or gender identities (LGBTQ+), the answer can sometimes be a hard “no.” And it’s an example of a larger problem in oral health: Structural bias and stigma around gender, gender expression, and sexual orientation can deepen LGBTQ+ oral health inequity.

 A picture may be worth a thousand words, but for two oral health care teams in North Carolina, it’s the numbers that are invaluable. “Data gives you a concrete picture of your practice,” says Rebecca Sykes, DDS, the dental director for Wake County Department of Health and Human Services Dental Clinic, a local health department, in North Carolina.