Reducing Dental Access Barriers for State-Insured Wisconsin Youth

Improving pediatric dental care access and education for state-insured children in southeast Wisconsin

Full Project Name:Reducing Dental Access Barriers for State-Insured Wisconsin YouthPrimary Community Organization:Community Smiles DentalPrimary Academic Partner:Rebecca Bernstein, MD, Family MedicineAward Amount:$250,000

Award Date

July2024

Project Duration:24 months

Project Summary:

Low-income families enrolled in Medicaid in Wisconsin face barriers to accessing dental care, including a shortage of providers accepting Medicaid and a lack of coordination between medical and dental care systems. As a result, children often suffer from untreated dental issues, leading to significant health complications like pain and infections that can impact their daily activities and influence learning outcomes.

Community Smiles Dental operates full-time safety net dental clinics that serve low-income families with children insured through Medicaid. Through this project, they aim to reduce barriers to dental care by expanding their services with a third clinic in Milwaukee County, improving patient navigation between medical and dental care and collaborating with MCW academic partners to improve care models. They will also develop educational programs to strengthen the public health dentistry workforce.

Project Updates:

Served 1,106 new pediatric patients via this affordable dental care model and successfully increased access to care at both project locations
Completed design phase of Milwaukee clinic and duties have shifted over to the construction team
Continued to engaged with collaborative partnerships with area educational institutions and solidified a new family medicine residency elective rotation with Froedtert South Side to send residents to CSD in Fall 2026
Confirmed proper documentation and referral practices to establishe bi-directional referrals between CSD dentists and medical providers and are in the process of testing the workflow and closed loop referral navigation
Updated and dispersed the CSD Operations Manual based on project findings and lessons learned through this work