Sunday, December 26, 2010

Low-Cost Dental Care

Finding low-cost dental services can involve finding state programs (where they exist) as well as schools of dentistry and oral hygiene where students will work under the supervision of professors or teachers. In Dental Guide USA, both of those types of assistance are listed: there is a listing for state dental health programs, but also for dental and oral hygiene schools. Contact those institutions in your area and see if they run programs. There is also a listing for local dental programs in some areas. The state site, however, covers Medicaid-related coverage in general, so if your state’s dental programs for the poor are outside Medicaid, they may not be listed.In Toledo, Oh, try the Dental Center of Northwest Ohio.


For that reason, you should also check the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research site for low-cost dental help. It also has a link to dental/oral hygiene schools and state programs beyond Medicaid. Finally, the site for Donated Dental Services has a map with state-by-state listings for applicants who are “either disabled, elderly or medically compromised and have no other way for paying for dental care,” run by the National Foundation for Dentistry for the Handicapped.  If you look at each state, the qualifying criteria  sometimes go beyond that and include non-handicapped people. For Ohio, for example, they list the Options plan, which takes non-disabled poor people, too. So click on your state and see if you qualify for dental coverage. 

For children with certain special conditions (cerebral palsy, neuromuscular disorders, mental developmental disorders, or organ transplants), for whom dentistry presents special problems, the Grottoes of North America Humanitarian Foundation has a program to help provide dental services.  See their website or call 614-933-0711 for more information.

4 comments:

Harvest said...

I am looking for a micro grant-- $500.00 for a Native American Veterans organization. It will be used as part of the funding for an Honor Garden . . . do you have any ideas?

Harvest said...

Thanks!

Linda Koss said...

Check your email for some suggestions.

Harvest said...

Thanks so much for your time, care, and effort!