Ohio puts $17 million into bringing dental care to schools with new OhioDENTAL program
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAOhio will invest more than $17 million to launch OhioDENTAL, a program that brings dental services directly into schools, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday, in a bid to reach children in rural communities where the cost of care and a shortage of dentists keep families from the dentist's chair.
The dental funding is part of more than $55 million in federal Rural Health Transformation Program awards the state is directing to children's health in rural Ohio. The package also includes more than $18 million to expand the state's OhioSEE vision program statewide and more than $20 million for school-based health centers.
OhioDENTAL follows the model of OhioSEE, the vision program DeWine launched in January as a pilot in 15 high-need counties that has since grown to 252 public school districts. Under the new dental program, providers will use mobile dental vehicles or set up temporary clinics inside participating schools to deliver comprehensive dental services and connect patients to brick-and-mortar clinics for follow-up care.
The state says the need is stark. According to the 2024 National Survey of Children's Health, Ohio lags other states in the share of children who receive preventive dental visits, with cost and a lack of providers cited as the main barriers for rural families.
“Oral health is a vital part of one's overall health,” said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff. “Untreated tooth decay can impact a child's eating, sleeping, and other everyday activities, and eventually could lead to tooth loss or other more serious complications. Therefore, creating programs like these that can reach children at an early age will be a real game-changer and lead to a healthier Ohio.”
The funding will also pay to train primary care professionals to weave oral health assessments, treatments and dental referrals into their practice, and to build a new collaborative aimed at increasing the number of Ohio dentists who accept Medicaid.
“The Rural Health Transformation Program has been instrumental in helping us to bring critical healthcare services to many more Ohioans,” DeWine said. “I am so pleased to see our successful OhioSEE program expand statewide. These funds will also expand school-based health centers and increase much-needed access to dental services.”
The school-based health center share of the package will open 17 new sites in 15 counties and expand or sustain 49 more centers in 25 counties, the governor's office said. OhioSEE's expansion takes the vision program to all 88 counties, serving students from kindergarten through 12th grade in the 73 Rural Health Transformation-eligible counties.
Sources: Office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, “Governor DeWine Announces more than $55 Million to Improve Healthcare Access for Children in Rural Ohio” (Nov. 2, 2026); Becker's Dental Review, “Ohio gets $17M to improve access to dental care services” (Nov. 3, 2026).
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