Tri-Cities is a ‘Dental Desert’ for low-income patients | Guest Opinion
You may have heard the term “food desert” to describe communities that don’t have access to affordable, nutritious food, in contrast to areas where there are a lot of supermarkets and stores with fresh food. People living in a food desert experience lower nutrition and worse health outcomes.
I would argue that Benton and Franklin Counties are facing a similar predicament when it comes to access to affordable dental care for low-income patients.
In this dental desert, we see people going without routine dental care, with negative impacts on their overall health and quality of life.
Fortunately, the state legislature has the opportunity to address this problem during the current legislative session. Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic is requesting financial support to add dental capacity with a new primary care dental clinic in Kennewick.
The clinic would offer integrated dental, medical, behavioral health, and pharmacy services to underserved people here. With the legislature’s support, we would be able to serve more than 5,000 new patients and provide nearly 12,000 more appointments a year. This request is part of a package of dental capital projects being proposed by community health centers across the state to address an urgent dental shortage.
How bad is access to dental care here?
Currently Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic provides only primary medical care and pediatric dental care in Benton and Franklin counties. Roughly a quarter of adult patients in Kennewick have not had a dental visit in the past year and an additional 17% have delayed or not sought care due to costs.
With 35% of the population in our service area considered low-income, 10% uninsured, and 26% on Medicaid or other public insurance, the need is great. One third of this low-income population has no regular source of dental care. Statewide, we’re still recovering from when the legislature cut dental coverage for Medicaid adults in 2011. There are fewer providers now than before that cut and 50% more patients to serve.
Washington’s Department of Health has noted that a historic lack of integration between oral and medical health care, as well as lack of dental coverage as a standard health benefit, nationally and in our state, have promoted disparities in access.
We can work toward eliminating this disparity by providing access to primary care dental services, including early screening and intervention in order to prevent more costly dental procedures in the future. Untreated oral disease makes chronic health conditions worse, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, pneumonia, and pregnancy complications. Diabetes and heart disease are major risk factors for COVID-19.
To recover from the pandemic, Washington needs all residents — regardless of income — to have health care, and access to dental care is essential for health equity.
Capital investments in new and expanded community health dental clinics are necessary to achieve this. They will also stimulate local economies and support our state’s recovery from the pandemic with construction and new jobs.
While we have local support for this clinic funding, including the mayor of Kennewick, Benton/Franklin County Commissioners, and the Benton/Franklin County Port Authority, we need the state legislature to act now. Let’s fix this dental desert and start building a dental oasis.
Steve Davis is the Chief Dental Officer at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic. He has lived in the Tri-Cities with his wife and daughter for the last 17 years.
This story was originally published February 5, 2021 at 12:36 PM with the headline " Tri-Cities is a ‘Dental Desert’ for low-income patients | Guest Opinion."