NYU College of Dentistry will host its second AHEAD Symposium — Achieving Health Equity through Access for All with Disabilities — focused on changes in policy and practice. The event will take place virtually on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon EDT, and will bring together experts in the areas of health care advocacy, access, and funding at the state and federal levels for people with disabilities.

COVID-19 created new access issues in health care, but people with disabilities have faced significant barriers to receiving care long before the pandemic. To see a dentist, people with disabilities may need to find a practice with an accessible office and a provider who is willing and prepared to see patients with disabilities. Payment can also be a barrier: while more than 10 million people with disabilities are eligible for Medicaid, many dentists do not accept it due to low reimbursement rates.

“Ensuring people with disabilities have access to compassionate, comprehensive oral health care is an important health equity goal, and we need policymakers and the oral health community at the table for these conversations,” said Charles N. Bertolami, DDS, DMedSc, the Herman Robert Fox Dean of NYU Dentistry. “We’re pleased to reconvene for our second AHEAD symposium to discuss how to both increase access for this patient population and prepare the next generation of dentists to care for them.”