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Currently Accepting Grant Applications

Our Mission

Our mission is to elevate the well-being of all Coloradans by advancing oral health equity.

Health disparities are exacerbated when people do not have access to oral health care. We work each day to increase everyone’s access by prioritizing and funding initiatives in areas that address root causes of oral health inequities.

We address our mission through our Theory of Change.

WHAT IS ORAL HEALTH EQUITY?

Achieving oral health equity means that every person can have a healthy mouth, regardless of life circumstances.

The State of Oral Health In Colorado

of Coloradans reported not visiting a dentist in the past 12 months.
of Coloradans who reported poor oral health, also reported poor general health.
of Black Coloradans reported not being able to access their dental office or clinic due to COVID-19 closures.

Source: 2021 Colorado Health Access Survey

Our work is grounded in research and driven by community partnerships, and we are prioritizing three focus areas where additional resources can help create oral health equity for everyone:

Prevention

Goal: To increase the number of children under the age of 6, their parents, and pregnant individuals who receive preventive oral health services in easy-to-access settings.

What Success Looks Like: Increase preventive care utilization, improve oral health, and tangibly integrate oral health care services within early childhood and maternal health care settings.

Oral Health Care Access

Goal: Create a community-led, data-driven, place-based strategy that supports all individuals having affordable, accessible, and comprehensive oral health care.

What Success Looks Like: Create systemic change and equitable advancement in the community while influencing and informing policies that increase access to oral health care for community members to develop a blueprint for future programs that can be replicated.

Workforce Development

Goal: Create a more racially and ethnically diverse oral health workforce that reflects the demographics of our state, resulting in further reduction of access-to-care barriers and increasing culturally and socially relevant oral health care delivery.

What Success Looks Like: Increase diversity in the oral health workforce, resulting in prosperity for oral health professionals who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color and increased access to care for diverse communities.

Our Impact

We amplify our Mile High Smile Power each day through the organizations,
individuals, and communities we work with. Learn more about their stories.

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Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation
Theory of Change