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South Dakota meets five of the eight policy benchmarks aimed at improving children’s dental health, one more than it met in 2010. The state surpassed the national benchmark for Medicaid utilization, providing dental services to 46 percent of Medicaid enrollees ages one to 18 in 2009, a nine percentage-point improvement from 2007.

Although South Dakota still fulfills the national benchmark for Medicaid rates as a percentage of dentists’ median retail fees, payments have not kept pace with inflation. The state now pays 62 percent of dentists’ usual fees.