Written by: Lindsay Deinhammer, RN, BSN, Project Manager – Oral Health
In 2022, the Milwaukee Oral Health Coalition (MOHC), with support from the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership, created the Milwaukee County Dental Access Directory. The directory aims to improve access to preventative, routine and urgent dental health services for residents that have a lower income, are uninsured or are enrolled in Medicaid in Milwaukee County.
The directory was made available to our partners and the community in February. It is currently housed on the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin (the Alliance) website and can be accessed here. As of mid-June, the directory has been downloaded over 1,500 times!
Community partners have shared how they have been able to use the directory to positively impact the oral health of Milwaukee County residents. “We have had several of our clients coming back in and thanking us for giving them the list of dentists who could help them and how appreciative they were to have received it,” commented Cheryl McCarter, healthcare access program coordinator at the Milwaukee Health Department.
McCarter described one client’s experience who was able to find a dentist in his area with the help of the directory, “It helped, as before everyone he called told him they didn’t take his insurance and wouldn’t see him. He stated that he was making calls daily for 2 weeks prior to receiving the list of providers (in the Milwaukee County Dental Access Directory).”
Download the Milwaukee County Dental Access Directory today
As we continue to work towards increasing dental access in Milwaukee County, please utilize and share the directory with others. Also, if you are a dental provider interested in increasing access to dental care through your clinic (in Milwaukee County) and would like to be included in the directory, contact Lindsay Deinhammer for more information or complete this survey.