Children's Dental Health: Idaho

Idaho meets five of the eight policy benchmarks aimed at addressing children's dental health needs. Idaho led the nation in Medicaid utilization; in 2009, the state reported that more than two-thirds of enrolled children received dental care.

Oral health for low-income kids became an issue in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign when the company managing the Idaho Smiles program briefly reduced the number of dentists in its provider network.¹ The state still lags behind in regard to water fluoridation; less than one-third of Idaho's residents on community systems receive optimally fluoridated water.

1. K. Soderlund, “DentaQuest reinstates Medicaid dentists in Idaho,” American Dental Association News,” October 25, 2010; http://www.ada.org/news/4931.aspx, (accessed December 6, 2010,)