A Paradigm Shift
By Diane Peters
The CDCP has increased access to dental care. Its real impacts go much further
In 2024, Anoop Sayal 9T2 noticed an uptick in calls to his general practice in George-town. Most were older people who had not been to the dentist in some time, or who had been putting off treatments that stretched their budgets.
The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) was rolling out and at that time more seniors were now eligible for treatment. So, a new crop of patients sat down in Sayal’s chair to take control of their oral health.
Two years later, he’s still seeing many of these people, along with others of all ages covered under the CDCP. “I find that now, most of them are happier. They’re healthier, they’re more comfortable. They’re less anxious,” he says of that first round of patients.
Sayal, who’s also a clinical instructor at the Faculty of Dentistry, has seen these positive changes in patients along with numerous ripple effects on his practice and students. “There’s a lot that’s changing,” he says.
“This program is addressing affordability for low-and middle-income families,” says Sonica Singhal 1T5 PhD DPH, assistant professor and director of the graduate program in dental public health at the Faculty. “But there have been unintended impacts.”
You’re actually witnessing history right now. This is the biggest public health funding in dental care in Canadian history
That’s not entirely unexpected. It’s still early, but we’re now starting to see just how patients, clinics, dental education, health care in general and private insurance have been affected by the CDCP.
“You’re actually witnessing history right now. This is the biggest public health funding in dental care in Canadian history,” says Abdulrahman Ghoneim 1T8 MSc DPH, 2T6 PhD DPH, a recent Dentistry grad who’s now an assistant professor at the Faculty of Dentistry at Dalhousie University. “I’ve always been an advocate for universal health care and that includes dental care. This is a good step in that direction.”
While the CDCP has political roots — a 2022 pact between the minority Liberal government and the NDP to gain its support — there was plenty of data at the time to show a real need. The World Health Organization reported that 32 per cent of people in Canada did not have access to dental insurance and almost 40 per cent of children had untreated caries in their baby teeth while the same was true of a quarter of people in their adult teeth. Data suggested that people routinely avoided dental care and declined treatment because of costs.
Meanwhile, of the $13.6 billion spent annually on dentistry in Canada, just six per cent was coming from government sources, well below the 30 per cent average among developed countries.
“We were spending some of the highest amounts on dental care in the world, and I would argue we weren’t getting great results,” says Nova Scotia-based dentist Brandon Doucet, who is also a co-founder of the Coalition for Dental Care, which advocates for publicly funded and delivered dentistry.
During rollout of the CDCP, the government, dentists and academics needed to support patients in figuring out how to apply for and use the program, and understand coverage. “It could have been a lot easier to use, and I think we could have set the expectations of patients better,” says Maneesh Jain 9T9, who was the Ontario Dental Association president from 2024–25 and practises in Guelph.
Dentists also had reservations about the CDCP to start. Many of these early bumps are gradually being smoothed out. “Dentists seem to be accepting it now,” says Singhal.
ASSESSING PATIENT RESPONSE
More than 4.5 million people have received care under the CDCP since its launch. Dentists such as Doucet are starting to see the impact. As a student, he worked on patients close to him in age who had full upper and lower clearances. Recently, however, he’s had people come in for new dentures for the first time in 30 years.
Sayal has noticed multiple improvements in his longer term CDCP patients and speculates on the wider impact. “I think there are huge benefits. For these patients, you’d expect to see less hospital time, less infection, less downtime, less stress on caregivers and families.”
More than 4.5 million people have received care under the CDCP since its launch
As director of clinical affairs at the Faculty, James Posluns has observed patients coming in for more dental treatments. “It’s enticing for patients to seek care,” he says. However, some will only go ahead with a recommended treatment that is covered by the plan.
We may never know just how much patients are benefit-ting if there’s no corresponding federal research plan. “More measurement needs to take place on the success of the plan to see where we can make the biggest impact,” says Ghoneim. He’s curious about the effects on seniors and children, people in rural areas, how health systems such as emergency departments are impacted and the overall return on investment.
Singhal says that individual researchers such as herself can examine specific populations or targeted aspects of the program, but the government can best do comprehensive evaluations. She hopes a new cycle of the Canadian Oral Health Survey could happen along with CDCP-specific national data collection.
Nine million Canadians are now eligible for the CDCP, 6.5 million registered for it last year and 3.9 million got care in that time period; Singhal wants to know more about the gaps in the numbers. “For them, affordability is not the issue but maybe it’s some other challenge,” she says.
“Coverage does not automatically translate into access to care,” says Anil Menon 1T8 MSc DPH, president of the Canadian Association of Public Health Dentistry and assistant professor and division head of Dental Public Health in the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry at the University of Manitoba. He does research and screenings in long-term care facilities where physical, functional and organizational barriers can prevent people from getting dental care.
IN THE DENTAL OFFICE
Some dentists such as Sayal have found the CDCP has endeared them to a new group of patients. “It drives practice growth,” he says, noting that his older patients generate effective word-of-mouth marketing. “Seniors have time and they’re talking to their friends. We’ve seen a lot of new patients come as a result of that.” With no year-end maximums, meanwhile, he’s finding CDCP patients come in steadily all year, which helps his practice.
Jain — who has ongoing concerns about the long-term sustainability of the program and its impact on dental care — says that more than 80 per cent of dental offices now accept the CDCP, but many set limits. He’s focusing on treating existing patients under the plan. “I’m not marketing outside of that,” he says. The program’s fee schedule is not as high as those recommended in Ontario — although the CDCP’s reimbursement rates for dentists are much more robust than most other publicly funded programs across the country. As well, the plan leads to more effort for dental offices. “It’s a lot more paperwork,” adds Jain, who has hired an additional treatment coordinator and carved out time in the schedules of other staff members to deal with preauthorizations.
Demand for dentistry seems to be up, which is good for many clinics, but could be overwhelming for others. “I’m hearing of clinics that are booked six months in advance,” says Ghoneim. “In a rural town where there is perhaps one dental clinic with one dentist and one hygienist, you could have patients from the entire town, and perhaps even neighbouring towns, coming to you.”
Statistics Canada reported in 2025 that four out of five dental offices had a human resources challenge around attracting and retaining staff. Ghoneim says this could be worsening under the CDCP, especially for rural offices. However, he hopes that practices that are truly flourishing under the pro-gram may find they’re able to afford higher wages, benefits and the like to better attract and retain support staff.
IMPACT ON LEARNING
The introduction of the CDCP has impacted patient volumes at dental teaching clinics across the country, especially under-graduate general clinics. “The CDCP may change where some lower-income patients seek care. This has created a need for dental faculties to think about patient recruitment and retention,” says Menon. Health Canada has helped schools with wide-ranging, generous funding to aid with marketing and more, but he notes that universities will have to make long-term plans for when the grants end.
Posluns predicted that the CDCP would impact patient numbers at university clinics to start, but that there would be a rebound. Thanks to substantial marketing efforts at U of T Dentistry, there’s been a bump in new patient numbers and he thinks the upward trend can continue. “Patients thought they could go their neighbourhood dentist and the CDCP covers everything and you can go anywhere. But it doesn’t cover everything and our fees for the things that are not covered are significantly less.”
He thinks the CDCP could lead to innovation and improvement in the clinical teaching approaches of dental faculties. “This could make the curriculum stronger. There’s tremendous opportunity here.” He’s continuing to look at ways to retain patients through offering improved services and maximizing DDS student time so they get as much experience as possible.
A NEW FOCUS
With the federal government investing $13 billion in the CDCP over five years to start, and everyone talking more about oral health, it’s put the spotlight on general dentistry and, in particular, dental public health. “It’s become very cool,” says Singhal of her field. “When you go to conferences and present work on dental public health, people are interested. And you can see the domain of dental public health assets has expanded with increased opportunities.”
The CDCP is part of a growing ecosystem supporting publicly funded dentistry that includes edicts from the World Health Organization and Canada’s newly developed National Oral Health Research Strategy. It’s possible that researchers seeking funding from federal agencies on a range of dentistry-related projects could more strongly use economic arguments to make their cases.
The other ripples include ongoing concerns that employers would pull back on private plans. Indeed, in 2025, the Canadian Dental Association found 11 per cent of Canadians reported a reduction in their dental benefits. “We hear from small businesses, ‘Why would we pay for benefits to our employees when they would qualify for this?’” says Jain.
FUTURE PROSPECTS
Tracking and understanding the many ways this new program is changing health care could deter-mine the future of the CDCP — and also how dentists, educators and others adjust. “This is a good step in the right direction. I don’t think oral health is different than general health, so I want it to continue. But I also want to see the evidence to teach the world,” says Ghoneim.
Doucet suggests we’ll need time and possibly regulatory change to truly embrace publicly funded dental care. “If we want to build a more comprehensive system that doesn’t have as many flaws, where we guarantee access to care, it’s going to be a decades-long process.”
In time, if the CDCP continues, it may be partly on dental professionals and academics to try to under-stand and raise awareness of its impacts to ensure its future iterations lead to positive outcomes.
For now, Jain has observed more benefits on balance. “It’s having a positive impact. People are talking about oral health more. More people that did not have access to care are getting it. So, that’s a good thing.”
Top illustration by Sébastien Thibault