Blog Posts
North Carolina Dental Schools: Producing the Next Leaders Addressing Oral Health
Our April 2026 post, “Quantifying North Carolina’s Dental Workforce Shortage”, discusses how NCOHC is exploring the oral health workforce and attempted to digest the impact of workforce shortage and how improvements can be made to increase North Carolina’s dental...
From Data to Action: 5 Steps to Bridge North Carolina’s Dental Divide
In our previous post, we explored the "dental divide" currently splitting North Carolina. While the state’s total number of dentists has doubled since 2000, half of those providers are concentrated in just six urban counties. The remaining 94...
Quantifying North Carolina’s Dental Workforce Shortage
This year, NCOHC is exploring different aspects of the Oral Health Workforce. In the past few months, we have explored the Old North State Dental Society’s efforts to improve and diversify the pipeline for dental schools and the role of FQHCs in addressing...
Bipartisan Bill Aims to Expand Access to Dental Care by Increasing Medicaid Reimbursement Rates
Contact: Crystal Adams, MA CDA RDHFoundation for Health Leadership and InnovationEmail: crystal.adams@foundationhli.orgPhone: (828) 638-6719 RALEIGH, NC — A bipartisan group of North Carolina legislators will introduce a bill next week to improve access to oral health...
The Strain on North Carolina’s Dental Workforce
In 2024, North Carolina expanded Medicaid to cover hundreds of thousands more residents, a major step toward improving access to care. But for patients in need of dental services, having insurance doesn’t necessarily mean being able to find a...
The Old North State Dental Society aims to expand the pool of new dentists
North Carolina is facing a critical and widespread oral health workforce shortage. 93 of our 100 counties are designated as Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (DHPSAs). This shortage is driving a rise in preventable emergency room...
Finding a Place to Treat: The Challenge of Anesthesia Access in Pediatric Dentistry
For some patients, most dental procedures can only be performed safely under anesthesia. This is especially true for children. Pre-cooperative toddlers, children with extensive early childhood caries, and patients with anxiety or complicated treatment...
What NCOHC did in 2025
Here are a few of our proudest accomplishments from the past year As the new year begins, we at NCOHC are proud of what we accomplished in 2025. At a time when the oral health system has faced setbacks from...
Breaking News: North Carolina Reverses Medicaid Cuts — For Now
On Wednesday, Governor Josh Stein announced that North Carolina would restore reimbursement rates for Medicaid providers. Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled legislature failed to agree on a comprehensive state budget. Instead, the state legislature...
Problem Solving: improving the Dental Assistant profession with national standards
Over the past two years, a group has been working to address one of the field’s major challenges, standardizing the Dental Assistant profession.
NCOHC is a program of the Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation
