Dientes Community Dental's Dr. Samuel Kuo treats Jose Mendoza in a building at Grey Bears in Live Oak this week as Dientes and Grey Bear are partnering to address a critical gap in access to oral health care for seniors in need.
Oral health inequities for children in Santa Cruz County have improved in recent years, but more work is needed to address gaps in care for low-income, teenage and elderly residents. Of the county's 82,000 residents on Medi-Cal insurance, only 30,000 or about 36.5% are accessing dental care according to Dientes CEO Laura Marcus.