America’s tribal communities have long suffered from an abundance of oral disease problems and a shortage of dentists.

Research has shown that Native American and Alaska Native preschoolers experience tooth decay at more than four times the rate of white children. Continue reading →

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.