On September 18th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded grants of up to $300,000 to 298 health centers across the country to improve their oral health services infrastructure. The total amount of funding came out to over $85 million for improvements like facility renovations, new dental and radiology equipment, training and consultation to increase oral health integration, and purchase of mobile dental units to increase access to oral health care in hard-to-reach parts of communities. HRSA-funded health centers provided services to over 6.4 million dental patients through over 16.5 million dental visits in 2018 alone.
 
Impact on General Dentistry: The AGD recognizes the important role many community health centers play in helping underserved populations access quality oral health care services. AGD hopes that HRSA will continue to fund grants for health centers to help them improve the oral health infrastructure necessary for dentists to provide oral health services to patients and communities in need.