These examples of WDA members’ charitable dental care efforts illustrate how “Dentists Do Serve” their communities and “Dentists Make a Difference” for underserved children and adults. However, charity alone is not a sufficient oral health care delivery system. Low-income patients suffer for various reasons: failure to care for their own oral health; inability to find a dental office for routine care, because small businesses can’t absorb too much income loss; and lawmakers’ failure to sufficiently fund the dental care they have promised.

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Charitable Dentistry – Voluntary survey information collected by the WDA shows individual dentists, on average, donate $7,500 - $10,000 annually in care to patients in need through their private-practices. In-office donations are in addition to nonreimbursed medical assistance care, volunteer service in community programs and clinics and/or any bills patients fail to pay. In 2009, 187 dentists provided $1.4 million in care to 4,293 low-income patients.

Community Dental Clinics – Volunteer dentists provide needed care to patients at more than 70 free or low-cost clinics statewide. Examples include Appleton’s Tri-County Community Dental Clinic, Racine’s Health Care Network, Milwaukee’s St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Dental Clinic and Monroe’s Fowler Memorial Free Dental Clinic. As a public service, the WDA has posted on WDA.org a low-income dental clinic listing organized alphabetically by county. It is updated annually.

Donated Dental Services – This WDA Foundation program provides comprehensive dental care at no charge to adults who cannot work due to a permanent disability, chronic illness or advanced age, and public aid programs do not meet their oral health needs. Since 1998, more than $6 million in care has been donated by 668 dentists to 2,260 patients; 147 dental labs have donated supplies and services worth $452,000. The state, Delta Dental of Wisconsin and WDA Insurance Programs & Services Corp. provide monetary support for administrative and lab costs while participating dentists donate more than $8 in clinical expertise, treatment and materials for every $1 of state funding.

Give Kids A Smile® 2010 – Hundreds of Wisconsin dentists, dental team members, dental and hygiene students and community volunteers donated an estimated $719,000 in care to some 6,250 children from families with limited financial resources during February as part of this eighth annual national children’s dental access program. GKAS events in Wisconsin have provided $4.1 million in care to 29,250 youngsters since 2003.

Mission of Mercy – The second WDA and WDA Foundation Mission of Mercy was held in Sheboygan in June 2010. A team of 953 volunteers, including 180 dentists, from across Wisconsin delivered more than $800,000 in charitable care during 2,038 patient visits by adults and children over two days. A total 7,572 dental procedures, including fillings, extractions, cleanings, treatment partials and root canals, were provided. Patients also received instruction in personal oral hygiene and diet. Some 105 organizations, businesses, dental supply companies and individuals gave more than $185,000 in monetary and in-kind donations to help cover dental equipment and facility rental, supplies, pharmaceuticals and food costs. WDA MOM events have helped 3,573 patients and provided more than $1.75 million in care in two years. Our next WDA Mission of Mercy will be in Wausau on June 24 – 25, 2011.

Dentists Surpass Government MA Contributions – An estimated 1,300 Wisconsin-licensed dentists provide care through the state’s dental Medicaid, BadgerCare and BadgerCare Plus programs. About 1 million individuals, or 20 percent of Wisconsin residents, are beneficiaries of MA coverage in a 12-month period. Fee-for-service data from the Department of Health and Family Service’s Dental Medicaid Fact Sheet for Fiscal Year 2006 (most recent available) shows $74 million in dental care services provided to MA patients. The state and federal governments paid $32 million (44 percent) of those charges. Thus, participating dentists donated $42 million to the state’s MA program in FY ’06 or more than the Wisconsin and U.S. governments combined.

Individuals’ Oral Health Improving – Despite access-to-care concerns for the underserved and MA population, the Kaiser Family Foundation “State Health Facts” website shows 73.2 percent of Wisconsin residents reported having their teeth cleaned by a dental professional in 2008 compared to 71.3 percent nationally. Just 14.4 percent of Wisconsin adults reported having had all of their natural teeth extracted compared to 18.5 percent of all U.S. adults. A March 2009 USA Today article ranks Wisconsin seventh in the nation in percentage of residents who have seen a dentist in the last 12 months. On a national scope, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Trends in Oral Health Status – United States, 1988-1994 and 1999-2004” reports improvements in Americans’ oral health: seven percent more seniors retain some of their natural teeth; moderate and severe gum disease decreased 50 percent among adults ages 20 – 64; and tooth decay in the permanent teeth of school-age children declined.