Children's Dental Health: Utah

Utah meets five of the eight policy benchmarks aimed at improving children's dental health, two more than in 2010. The state reports having sealant programs in over one-quarter of high-risk schools and that dental hygienists working in these programs can place sealants without a dentist's prior exam.

Utah still faces challenges in other areas of dental health policy—it can do more to expand water fluoridation and improve the rates that Medicaid pays to dentists. Pew's 2010 report noted that the state paid dentists serving Medicaid-enrolled children 45.1 percent of dentists' median retail fees, but that figure has dropped to 33.2 percent this year.