Gonzalo Perez leads the DentaQuest Case Management team. See what he finds rewarding in his team's work and why he feels he makes a difference working at DentaQuest.

As a dental benefits administrator serving more than 33 million people nationwide, the majority of whom are low-income children and families enrolled in Medicaid, we see firsthand – and at scale – the obstacles people face in accessing high quality preventive dental care,” said Steve Pollock, president and CEO of DentaQuest. “SMILE Health is unique in its approach to rapidly validate and deploy solutions designed to address these obstacles. Given DentaQuest’s mission to improve the oral health of all, we are eager to support entrepreneurs working toward a more equitable, healthier future.”

Steve Pollock, president and CEO for Medicaid dental benefits administrator DentaQuest, issued the following statement reacting to the NCD report: “This new report makes clear that oral healthcare is healthcare and investing in dental benefits is the fiscally and ethically responsible move. Without routine dental visits, dental disease or pain can go untreated, particularly among people with I/DD who may have difficulty communicating. This report proves that providing Medicaid dental benefits for adults with I/DD — 60 percent of whom rely on Medicaid for their health coverage — is more cost-effective than continuing to exclude those benefits. It is also more ethical — coverage would address a significant disparity in care, reduce chronic pain, improve quality of life and bolster self-confidence. And an adult dental Medicaid benefit directly addresses a key gap in health equity for other populations, as well.”

Anel Torres was one of many affected by the water line break and boil water notice that happened this past February She lives outside the city, in the Pueblo Nuevo area, and says the water crisis put her life on hold. Torres says, “We didn’t have running water for a couple of days so my job kind of stopped, and my children had to be home as well, so it kind of hit us back.” Torres reached out to her employer based in Boston about the water crisis that was affecting her family and several members of her community. Her employer, Dentaquest, took notice and delivered nine pallets of water bottles to her doorstep. In total that was approximately 17,000 water bottles.

Research released in 2021 by the British Dental Journal, the Journal of the California Dental Association, and DentaQuest found proper oral health makes it more likely that an infected person will survive Covid-19.

Florida Healthy Kids—a public-private partnership that offers low-cost health and dental insurance for children ages 5 to 18 who reside in the state of Florida—will continue its contract with DentaQuest to provide dental managed care to kids covered by the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

DentaQuest has received a score of 95 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index, a benchmarking survey and report objectively measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.

Dr. Michael Jacques joined the US Navy Reserves as a dental officer and continues to serve with the reserves. He joined DentaQuest on February 17th, 2012, when the company first started in Texas. As the manager of clinical management, he oversees dental consultant staffing and operational processes to ensure accuracy and efficiency is met for our client’s needs. Currently this includes 48 dental consultants.

DentaQuest's Dr. Amber Bonnaig answers questions about how to take care of your teeth in the morning and throughout the day.

Dr. Amber Bonnaig is a dentist and Dental Director of DentaQuest in Georgia. She gives In The Know the rundown on all the TikTok dental hacks you should avoid. And quite frankly she found a lot of them "a little scary". Despite TikTokers promoting hydrogen peroxide as a teeth whitener, the doctor — and most dentists — warn against it

Fishbein said DentaQuest CEO Steve Pollock and his management team will stay with Sun Life after the acquisition is completed, with Pollock slated to run the dental business at Sun Life U.S.

Once the transaction closes, DentaQuest will become part of Sun Life’s US business. Sun Life US currently provides dental benefits through employers for their employee benefits plans and has an extensive national commercial dental network.

Sun Life Financial Inc., Canada’s largest group-benefits company, agreed to buy U.S. dental-benefits provider DentaQuest for about $2.48 billion, bolstering its business south of the border.

DentaQuest is closing access gaps by educating patients, setting up community dental clinics in underserved areas, and offering more appointment availability, as well as teledentistry.

By Steve Pollock and Sarah Bedard Holland For adults who receive health care coverage under Virginia’s Medicaid program, access to oral health care was previously limited to emergency care only, which often meant care was only available when a person’s mouth was in such bad shape that tooth extraction was necessary, leaving a hole or holes in the mouth. Steve Pollock is president and CEO of DentaQuest, the organization that administers the Medicaid dental benefit in Virginia. Sarah Bedard Holland is CEO of Virginia Health Catalyst.

While TikTok is a great platform for dancing and entertaining videos, some are using it for Dental DIY hacks. When it comes to your teeth, the Dental Director of Louisiana DentaQuest, Dr. Damien Cuffie, says you shouldn't be using dental hacks from TikTok.

According to reports, the rise of the social media platform TikTok during the past year has led to an increase in do-it-yourself (DIY) dentistry that many professionals in the oral health community, including Amber Bonnaig, DDS, of DentaQuest, are warning against due to the harmful impacts it can have on one’s mouth.

Dr. Barefoot has clinical experience delivering patient care in private practice, as part of an HMO dental clinic, via mobile dentistry serving mostly Medicaid schoolchildren, and with other volunteers caring for rural communities in Honduras. His 30-year career in dentistry is complemented by a series of other non-dental endeavors that include medical research at Methodist Hospital of Indiana and business development, analysis, and analytics in a range of areas. He joined DentaQuest in 2016 as dental director for Indiana. In his current role, he provides clinical input to develop new care programs, to manage the design of quality measures, and to respond to questions from providers participating in value-based programs.

The Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) and DentaQuest, the state’s Medicaid dental benefits administrator, are working closely with dental providers to encourage participation in the initiative. Providers wishing to serve Medicaid members can call 1-888-912-3456 or visit the Dentaquest website for information on credentialing and enrolling in the Medicaid provider network.

“Throughout the pandemic, DentaQuest has been committed to our mission of meeting oral health needs across the country. This campaign provides a kid-specific opportunity to learn lessons they can carry with them and live a healthy lifestyle well into adulthood.”

Dr. Barefoot is a clinical leader at DentaQuest, one of the nation’s largest oral health organizations working to improve the oral health of all. The ideal VBC program design is one that can be easily incorporated into the day-to-day operations of the office with minimal extra effort. In such a program, the office understands and embraces the VBC objective of improving population health and recognizes that outreach to its assigned patients is an important aspect of the program. The ideal program also means that any modifications made to participate in it aren’t disruptive to the patient experience.

It comes as no surprise to anyone that the oral health profession continues to lack diversity. According to the American Dental Education Association, in 2016, only 15.2% of the applicants to dental school were from underrepresented populations. Steve Pollock, CEO of DentaQuest, discusses the specific steps DentaQuest is making to make a difference for a diverse future in dentistry.

George Barker and Myechia Minter-Jordan column

By Dr. Michael Monopoli