Access Dental Care Newsletter

May | 2026

Dear friends,

From Morehead City to Asheville, Access Dental Care continues proving that mobile special care dentistry works. In this month’s newsletter, we’re sharing the financial realities behind this work, expanding access into Western North Carolina, and how our model is helping influence care beyond our state borders.

With gratitude,

Bill Milner & Betsy Lee White

Co-founders of Access Dental Care

Delivering Care at $0.27 on the Dollar

That’s what Access Dental Care receives from North Carolina Medicaid for each clinical service provided. It’s less than one-third of the reimbursement for a “usual and customary” fee. Every day, our six mobile dental teams – each consisting of a dentist, hygienist, two dental assistants:

Travel in a fully equipped mobile dental unit to a facility
Unload two complete dental operatories, set up onsite, organize the patient schedules, review health histories, and coordinate sedation when needed.
At each facility, our mobiles teams treat an average of 20-25 patients per day in nursing homes, group homes, PACE programs and HIV/AIDS centers.
Reload the truck, return to the local office, and prepare and organize supplies for the next day.

This happens five days a week at multiple locations across North Carolina. Yet Access Dental Care is reimbursed $0.27 cents for every dollar we spend on delivering care to some of North Carolina’s most dependent, vulnerable patients.

Something has to change.

We’ve proven, against many odds, that quality, comprehensive care can be brought to the patient. It provides continuity of care to those who have valued dental care all their lives, treats patients with behaviors that few local practitioners can handle, and has established a workable, mobile care system that nobody thought possible.

We are evaluating and defining what it will take to create a sustainable financial future, ensuring that North Carolina’s rapidly growing special care populations continue to get essential dental care.

It will take many partners and advocates to help make a difference.

Meeting the Need in Western North Carolina

Thanks to a $300,000 grant from The Dogwood Trust, ADC now has a mobile dental team based in Asheville. This team will serve patients across a wide region stretching from Rutherfordton to Spruce Pines and west to Murphy. (More than two-and-a-half hours from Asheville.)

This is a big deal for us.

We were excited to establish an Asheville team in 2024 but due to the unfortunate devastation of Hurricane Helene, we had to postpone the start of the program. A dedicated team of clinicians from Asheboro has been traveling to Western North Carolina to care for the patients in a dozen facilities. We can now expand services to other facilities that have been patiently waiting for a full-time team. This new team gives us the ability to add a hospital operating room program and have yet another site for dental students to gain exposure and learn the art of special care dentistry.

We can now claim that our program reaches from Murphy to Morehead City.

Building Mobile Dental Programs Beyond North Carolina

Last year, Dr. Kim Cole, Dental Director of the ECRH Gracewood Developmental Center in Augusta, Georgia, contacted ADC for help developing a mobile dental program serving area group homes.

Through Access Dental Delivers, Access Dental Care is now helping other organizations build sustainable mobile dentistry programs using the same operational model developed over 25 years in North Carolina.

The program combines custom mobile dental delivery systems with consulting, staff training, implementation support, and ongoing operational guidance. Supported by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Dr. Cole now has an ADC designed and manufactured mobile dental unit and equipment on the way to Georgia. Our team will help train providers and support startup implementation.

The approach made sense to Dr. Cole and her team.

Rather than transporting multiple residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities to a fixed dental clinic, providers can now deliver care directly to patients in familiar settings. This approach reduces staffing and transportation burdens while minimizing disruption for residents who respond best to established daily routines.

BECAUSE OF YOU, CARE CONTINUES.

Much of our reimbursement comes from Medicaid, which covers only a fraction of the care we provide. For every dollar of service, we are reimbursed just 27 cents.

We depend on gifts to make up the difference. Supporting Access Dental Care helps us bring essential dental care directly to individuals who cannot access traditional offices.