Participa!, Inc. Dental Services is a portable school-based program that provides dental services in Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Curry, Dona Ana, Guadalupe, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Torrance, Union and Valencia Counties.  Our particular dental services program is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently has three other regional locations in Farmington, Hobbs and Las Cruces.  Currently, our dental service personnel travel to work sites from their home locations according to the geography of New Mexico. 

 New Mexico has a great need for improving oral healthcare among its children.  One proven strategy for reaching low-income children who are at higher risk for dental disease is through school-based programs linking healthcare professionals and other dental partners in the community. 

School-based dental programs have been successful because these programs provide access to the child while the child is in school.  It does not require parental involvement other than signing a consent form and this helps to remove one of the barriers to dental care access.  Our program transports dental services to the child instead of relying on the parent or guardian to bring the child to the dental office.  For many parents, this solves the problem of transportation along with having to take time off from work for their child’s dental appointment.  These obstacles to accessing quality dental care are particularly important solutions for low-income parents in many rural areas that have few or no Medicaid providers available.

Our school-based dental program concentrates on addressing and closing the health disparity gaps throughout New Mexico.