Browsing through the state's year-end Political Action Reports, I was surprised to see both the Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS) PAC and the affiliated Massachusetts Dental Society Peoples Committee in the Top 10 in terms of money left on hand at the end of 2008. The former had a balance of $119,762; the latter had $135,717. (The Retired Public Employees PAC was on top with $1,162,958, distantly followed by the Massachusetts Police Association PAC at $228,341.) What's more, the dental PACs spent little of their beginning balances in 2008, even though it was an election year.

Now we may know what the state's dentists have been gearing up for. Last week, the MDS launched a "call to action" (as reported in A Healthy Blog)

…the MDS is sponsoring legislation this year that would require every child in Massachusetts to have a dental exam by a dentist before entering Kindergarten, in much the same way as children are required to have physical exams before starting school. According to Dr. Glicksman, if parents don’t have private dental insurance or MassHealth coverage (the state’s Medicaid insurance program), the Massachusetts Dental Society will help them find a dentist who will offer these exams at a reduced fee for income-eligible families.

The MDS agenda also includes "a proposal to work with the state to assist dental school graduates with tuition and loan repayment" — which may have something to do with "a shortage of dentists willing to treat newly insured patients," as reported in the Boston Globe last summer. The MDS says it's encouraging dentists to take on more Medicaid and Commonwealth Care patients, but many dentists are balking at what they say are low reimbursement rates by the state.