Untreated Crisis: A shortage of dental health professionals puts 6 million at risk in Florida

Florida leads the nation in the number of individuals, nearly 6 million, who are living in Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas.

According to the US Health Resources and Services Administration data, 66 of Florida's 67 counties lack the number of professionals needed to provide care. Advocates say the shortage is of crisis proportions leading to significant impacts on general health as they say poor oral health is linked to impaired school learning, heart disease, and even death.
Dr. Frank Catalanotto, founder of Floridians for Dental Access, said part of the problem is the significant cost of dental care. He noted in Florida and nationally, thousands of people with toothaches take their problems to an emergency room.

"The physicians in the emergency rooms aren't prepared to deal with this, so the patient gets antibiotics and pain medication and then told to see a dentist tomorrow," Catalanotto pointed out. "Well, if they couldn't afford a dentist today, they are not going to afford one tomorrow."

"Yes, we are critically underserved in the state of Florida when it comes to dental care, and it’s one of the reasons we started Baptiste Dentistry for Kids. We see way too many kids that are now getting access to healthcare for the first time.

--Andre Baptiste, Baptiste Orthodontics and Dentistry for Kids

Catalanotto reported that of the 150,000 who went to the emergency room in 2019, 4,000 were admitted to the hospital because the dental infections were life-threatening. As of 2020 and 2021, there were 12,264 dentists in Florida, according to the state Department of Health, and not all of them take Medicaid, which provides coverage for low-income individuals.

Most dentists in Florida are concentrated in large urban counties, with very few dentists in many rural counties. Three counties -- Dixie, Glades, and Lafayette -- have no dentists. State health data show three other counties -- Union, Gilchrist, and Franklin -- each had just one.

Catalanotto noted that more research is connecting the dots on how this disparity impacts the health of school children and adults.

"If you're not learning, you're not going to get an education," Catalanotto emphasized. "And for adults, it's way more serious because there is now very good strong scientific literature about the relationship, for example, between gum disease, periodontal disease, and diabetes."

At the last count in Florida, Catalanotto said fewer than one in five dentists, just 18%, participated in Medicaid in 2016. He added that the scary part of the crisis is how little the public knows about how oral health impacts their everyday health. Hence, his group's focus is to spread awareness and eventually land on concrete solutions which get to the root of the problems.

Andre Baptiste, the owner of Baptiste Orthodontics and Dentistry for Kids in Apopka, sees this problem firsthand in his practice.

"Yes, we are critically underserved in the state of Florida when it comes to dental care, and it’s one of the reasons we started Baptiste Dentistry for Kids," Baptiste said. "We see way too many kids that are now getting access to healthcare for the first time. Part of the problem is the Florida Dental Board exam, which is widely known as one of the most difficult in the nation and restricts the number of providers we can have. The other is poor reimbursement rates and coverage that Medicaid provides in the state. Most offices will not see Medicaid patients for that reason. We do, in both orthodontics and pediatric dentistry, because if we stop, these people will have nowhere to go. I get patients that come from two hours away because we are the closest provider. The state needs to do more to solve this growing problem."