While states are required by federal law to offer a full range of dental services to children under Medicaid, adult benefits are considered an optional part of the program.

It would cost at least $1.4 billion to expand Medicaid dental programs in the 22 states where options for adults are currently limited or nonexistent, according to a new research brief from the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute (HPI). Continue reading →

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America."