The Relationship Between Dental Provider Density and Receipt of Dental Care Among Medicaid-enrolled Adults

We sought to measure the association of dental provider density and receipt of dental care among Medicaid-enrolled adults.

We used four years of Indiana Medicaid claims and enrollment data (2015 to 2018) and the Area Health Resources File to examine the relationship between any dental visit (ADV) or any preventive dental visit (PDV) and three county-level measures of dental provider density (the total number of Medicaid-participating dentists, a binary indicator of a federally qualified health center (FQHC) with a Medicaid-participating dentist, and the overall county dentist-to-population ratio).

The likelihood of ADV or PDV increased with greater density of Medicaid-participating dentists as well as dentists accepting Medicaid working at an FQHC within the county. The overall dentist-to-population ratio was not associated with dental care use among the adult Medicaid population.

Dentist participation in Medicaid program may be a modifiable barrier to Medicaid-enrolled adults' receipt of dental care.