When Missouri expanded Medicaid dental benefits this summer, advocates hailed it as a breakthrough. For the first time, adult Medicaid recipients could receive routine dental exams—a service long excluded from the program. Although some dental offices across the state began accepting Medicaid patients right away under the new reimbursement system, there are still many rural counties where dental care access is paltry due in large part to a lack of providers.
The Numbers
National surveys place Missouri in the bottom tier when it comes to preventive care. According to America’s Health Rankings, only about 61 percent of Missouri adults visited a dentist in the past year, placing the state 37th out of the 50 states. Among children, the situation is even more dire: Just 74.9 percent had a preventive dental visit in 2022–23, ranking Missouri 47th out of 50 states.