Oral Health Equity Resources
The Oral Health Equity Report provides a framework for improving access to care, guiding public investment, and strengthening California’s dental workforce. It highlights longstanding disparities that impact patients and providers, offering strategies rooted in data and real-world experience. From investing in provider recruitment to improving cultural competence, the recommendations support more stable, connected care for patients while building sustainability for dental teams.
As policymakers and providers navigate limited resources, the report serves as a roadmap for solutions that improve outcomes, reduce costly emergency care, and ensure California’s dental workforce reflects the diversity of its communities.
The Health Equity Commitments outline how CDA and its foundation operationalize principles of health equity across advocacy, education, and care delivery. This includes:
- Expanding access to care in underserved communities through programs like clinical education partnerships and special needs dental access initiatives.
- Driving policy and systems change through Medi-Cal reform and fluoridation advocacy.
- Strengthening the dental workforce by expanding inclusive career pathways, investing in professional development, and supporting provider wellness.
From reimbursement reform to workforce development, these commitments reflect an integrated, equity-driven approach to building a healthier, more inclusive oral health system for California.
CHFFA Grant
Lack of access to dental care for patients with special needs is a decades-long crisis, even as the state has made strides to increase access in the Medi-Cal dental program. Few settings can provide dental care for patients with special needs. Most, including dental schools, are backlogged with exceptionally long wait times, sometimes a year or more, and which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Many patients and their families travel hours to clinics to receive routine dental care, and some wait for years to receive that care, as highlighted in a CalMatters article published in May 2022.
An approved one-time investment of $50 million will help to alleviate the long wait times for these patients. The investment, advocated by CDA and a coalition of special needs advocates, provider groups and dental schools, will fund grants to build a network of new specialty dental clinics or expand settings that serve individuals with physical, developmental or cognitive disabilities.
Funds from the Specialty Dental Clinic Grant Program, which is being administered by California Health Facilities Financing Authority, can be used to expand or adapt specialty clinics at university dental schools or to construct new clinics that serve individuals with special health care needs.
The new and expanded clinics funded by the grant program will increase timely access to oral health care in California communities while reducing geographic shortages, encouraging prevention services and early intervention and providing education opportunities for providers and students.
In consultation with the California Dental Association Foundation, CHFFA will develop the competitive grant program’s guidelines, application process, eligibility criteria, and methodology for the distribution of grant funds. Entities can apply for a grant of up to $5 million, with grant awardees being required to commit to serving 50% patients with special health care needs for 10 years. At least 10 entities, and possibly many more, may receive a grant, depending on the award amounts of each grant.
The additional care settings will significantly expand access to dental care for individuals who are unable to undergo dental procedures in traditional dental offices either due to special health care needs or the complexity of the care needed ― sometimes requiring special accommodations for mobility issues, stabilization or deep sedation.
Prospective applicants can bookmark the CHFFA’s grant program webpage to sign up for updates, download the application, or ask questions about the grant program.
CBCE Grant
The CDA Foundation was selected as the grant administrator of the Community-Based Clinical Education funds that CDA successfully advocated for in 2022. Seven California dental schools have been awarded a total of $5,287,000 through June 2027 to expand their CBCE rotation sites to 25 clinics working in underserved communities throughout the state.
CDA’s ask was spurred by findings of the 2018-2028 California Oral Health Plan advisory committee, which indicated “insufficient infrastructure to promote culturally sensitive community-based oral health programs” was a key reason for the high prevalence of dental caries and untreated dental caries among grade three children. The committee also recommended increased collaboration between various health care, academic and public health organizations to provide dental care to underserved Californians.
The new, self-sustaining clinical rotations model will give trainees real-world experiences in various dental practice models, including federally qualified health centers, private offices and mobile dentistry to enhance learning in patient engagement, practice management and team-based care delivery.
To learn more, please see our recently published news article and program spotlight.
Smile Crew CA
CDA Foundation, in partnership with CDA, has launched dental assisting training programs, called Smile Crew CA. These programs have proved to be successful, placing nearly all participants in open dental positions in California, creating job opportunities for workers who have been displaced by the pandemic and helping member-dentists fill open positions in their practice.
These trainings teach participants dental terminology, HIPAA compliance, infection control protocols and other basic skills needed for a dental assisting career. Importantly, the trainings also allow participants to obtain the certifications required for dental assisting. The trainings include an online self-led learning module plus in-person classroom lessons with material developed by CDA staff in collaboration with member-dentists.
Since the initial pilot, CDA Foundation and CDA have enrolled hundreds of participants in training programs throughout the state. Training programs have been hosted in a variety of counties including San Bernardino, South Bay of Los Angeles County, San Diego and San Francisco.