Over 70% of Latino third-graders in California have experienced tooth decay, nearly double the 40% rate among White children. This disparity reflects systemic failures in dental care access that leave minority families struggling to find treatment for their children.
Dr. Paula Izvernari, who owns a dental practice in Montclair, describes hearing the same story repeatedly from Latino parents whose children suffer severe tooth pain but cannot find dentists accepting Medi-Cal or offering timely appointments. These families are not negligent but rather trapped in a system that consistently denies their children care.
Sacramento County’s Latino population, representing 24% of the 1.6 million residents, faces particular challenges. Many families live in working-class neighborhoods where parents juggle multiple jobs and rely on public insurance as their only healthcare option. Latino children across California are nearly twice as likely as White children to have untreated cavities, leading to infections and emergency visits that preventive care could have avoided.
The root problem lies in California’s exceptionally low Medi-Cal reimbursement rates to dental providers. In 2022, fewer than half of children enrolled in Medi-Cal received a preventive dental visit. Sacramento County data from 2016-2017 showed only 12.9% of children aged 6-9 had dental sealants, revealing long-standing gaps in basic preventive services.
Solutions include raising reimbursement rates, deploying mobile dental clinics to schools, and improving bilingual outreach so families understand available services.
See: “Sacramento’s Quiet Oral Health Crisis: How Latino Children Struggle Accessing Dental Care” (January 7, 2026)
