BCBSM Healthy Kids Dental Helps Children in Underserved Communities Receive Essential Dental Care
Jake Newby
| 3 min read
It’s never too early to create tooth-healthy habits. As adults, we recognize that a healthy mouth allows us to chew and digest food and speak clearly, while giving our face its shape. It's essential that dental care begin in childhood.
Healthy Kids Dental is Michigan’s pediatric Medicaid program. It provides no-cost dental care to eligible children until they are 20 years old. As one of the program’s administrators, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) is committed to keeping the smiles of more than 320,000 children in the state’s underserved communities healthy.
About 46% of children age 2 to 19 have had tooth decay or cavities in one or more of their permanent teeth, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Despite this alarming statistic, children are increasingly less likely to receive a dental exam. The CDC reports that from 2019 to 2020, the percentage of children age 1 to 17 who had a dental examination or cleaning in the previous 12 months decreased from 84% to 81%.
Children from low-income families are even more likely to skip their preventive dental visits than their counterparts due to additional barriers to care such as:
- Oral health education
- Transportation
- A lack of understanding of health benefits
If left untreated, a simple cavity can turn fatal, as was the case with 12-year-old Deamonte Driver in 2007. More recently, this happened with former NFL player Mike Williams in 2023.
Blue Cross understands that oral health cannot be separated from the whole health of our members. That’s why we’ve been working diligently to mitigate barriers to care and get Healthy Kids Dental members into their dental office to receive the care that they need.
In 2023, nearly $18,000,000 was spent statewide on member and provider incentives and value-based care programs aimed at increasing preventive dental care among Blue Cross Healthy Kids Dental participants. Healthy Kids Dental coverage includes:
- Exams
- X-rays
- Screenings and assessments
- Sealants
- Extractions
- Fillings
- Cleanings
- Root canals
- Emergency dental services
- Fluoride treatments
Blue Cross is dedicated to the social mission of increasing access to affordable, quality dental care to Michigan’s youth. Encouraging care with Healthy Kids Dental is just one piece of that puzzle.
Blue Cross sponsors and provides volunteers to free dental care events across the state. In 2023, we worked with the Detroit Lions to bring TeamSmile to Detroit, an event that delivers free complex dental care to underserved youth. In June 2024, Blue Cross was a proud sponsor and volunteer for the Michigan Dental Association Foundation’s Mission of Mercy event in Flint, which provided free dental screenings and services to patients of all ages.
For more information on Healthy Kids Dental – including a benefits summary that details services that are and are not covered – click here. Members can also click here to Find a Dentist after logging into their account.
Photo credit: Getty Images
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