Medi-Cal Dental Use in Los Angeles County, 2013 to 2024

In 2024, the state counted 3,495,987 Los Angeles County Medi-Cal members who had dental coverage for the whole year, 27.5% of all such members in California. 1,379,973 of them, or 39.5%, had at least one dental service. That leaves 2,116,014 members, about six in ten, with no dental service at all during a year in which they were covered. Across California the share with a dental service was 37.9%.

Los Angeles County has been at or slightly above the state figure every year since 2017. In 2013 the county was well ahead (35.7% against 31.7%); in 2016 it was just behind (35.7% against 36.2%); by 2017 the two were level (37.9% and 37.8%).

In 2024, 58.0% of Los Angeles County members under 21 had a dental service, against 30.2% of adults. Among children, use peaked at ages 6 to 9 (67.4%). It was lowest for babies under 1 (20.5%), 43.6% for toddlers aged 1 to 2, and fell to 39.2% at ages 19 and 20. Among adults it was highest at ages 45 to 64 (33.7%), 27.6% at ages 21 to 34 and lowest for members 75 and older (26.6%).

Adult figures changed most over the period. Medi-Cal eliminated full adult dental benefits in 2009, restored part of them in May 2014 and restored the rest on January 1, 2018, according to the Department of Health Care Services. In Los Angeles County, 10.2% of adult members had a dental service in 2013 and 22.3% in 2014; by 2024 it was 30.2%, the highest in the 12 years of data.

In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the share of Los Angeles County members with a dental service fell from 40.5% the year before to 32.5%, the lowest of the 12 years. For members under 21 it fell from 57.5% to 46.2%. By 2024 the share was back to 39.5% for all ages, just short of 2019's level, while both the under-21 and adult shares had passed their pre-pandemic highs.

• DHCS publishes these figures by county, not by city, so Medi-Cal members in Glendale are part of the Los Angeles County numbers.
• Having dental coverage and using it are different things: about six in ten Los Angeles County members who were covered all of 2024 had no dental service that year. Medi-Cal members can find a participating dentist in the Medi-Cal Dental provider directory.
• Infinite Dental Wellness does not accept Medi-Cal or Denti-Cal. Our dental insurance and payment page explains the PPO plans and payment options we do accept.

The figures come from two California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) datasets on the state's open data portal: "Multi Year Medi-Cal Dental Measures Data by County and Age" and the statewide "by Age Groups" version, both covering calendar years 2013 to 2024. We use DHCS's one-year "Overall Utilization of Dental Services" measure: members continuously enrolled in Medi-Cal dental coverage (managed care or fee-for-service) for the whole calendar year, and how many of them had at least one dental service or a dental encounter at a safety-net clinic. In the county file the measure's name changes slightly for 2023 and 2024 ("One dental service" instead of "At least one dental service"); it is the same measure, and the 58 counties' figures add up to the statewide file, which keeps the old name, apart from the small cells DHCS hides. Totals for all ages, under 21 and 21 and older are the sums of DHCS's age groups; percentages are members with a service divided by members counted.

Limits: the measure leaves out members who were not enrolled for the full year, so it describes steady enrollees, not everyone on Medi-Cal. It counts any dental service, from a checkup to an extraction, and does not show whether members got all the care they needed. DHCS hides small cells for privacy; none of the Los Angeles County or statewide figures used here are hidden. The benefit dates come from DHCS's 2018 Stakeholder Advisory Committee presentation on the adult dental benefit restoration.