Oral health is not a sexy issue. Millions of seniors aren’t lobbying their congressional representative about access to dentists, employers aren’t wringing their hands about rising dental costs, dental health policy wonks aren’t in big demand at well-attended public conferences. And yet when we look at the state of oral health in America, as the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office did in 2000 with its first ever report on the subject, we discover a “silent epidemic” of dental disease, especially among children and selected population groups, with a growing number of citizens lacking access to basic dental care. This results in short- and long-term health problems that have a profound impact on individuals, families and the nation’s health care system.