By Melissa Patrick, Kentucky Health News

A community dental clinic in Owensboro has helped more than 25,000 low-income residents access dental care.

Suzanne Craig, the public health supervisor for the Green River District Health Department, co-founded the non-profit Daviess County Community Dental Clinic in 2009.

She said seeing a dentist is one of the most difficult types of healthcare services to access for people without an employer-sponsored dental plan.

“The clinic gets 200 calls a day for services,” said Craig, “because there’s not enough access to care with dental care right now in our state.”

She stressed that few dentists will accept Medicaid, which usually pays only about 40% of the true cost for services.

“Medicaid might pay $32 to extract a tooth, and insurance might pay $200,” said Craig, “so you could see how that causes some inequity, and many dentists just can’t afford to take it.”

She said the clinic partners with the University of Louisville to help train oral healthcare professionals in the region.

Daviess County Community Dental Clinic Board Member Brandon Harley said the clinic has been life-changing for thousands of patients, many of whom would otherwise be left in dental pain or forced to seek emergency room care.

“Traditionally, dentists are scarce in rural areas, so oftentimes people have to travel great distances to access care,” said Harley, “so I think that’s (why) the services that the community dental clinic provides is so important.”

Kentucky ranks 9th out of 50 in oral cancer rates and 5th in the percentage of adults with tooth extractions.

According to the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, five Kentucky counties have no practicing dentists. These include Ballard, Edmonson, Fulton, Jackson, and Robertson counties.

Craig was recently awarded the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky‘s 2024 Gil Friedell Memorial Health Policy Award for her work to improve dental care access and reduce healthcare barriers among uninsured residents.