If you’re in one of North Carolina’s dental shortage counties, a few resources are specifically built for this situation rather than assuming a typical private practice down the street:

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). These community health centers are built around sliding-scale fees and Medicaid/uninsured patients from the ground up — they’re not trying to make Medicaid’s lower reimbursement work inside a private-practice margin, because they’re structured differently from the start. If there’s an FQHC or community health center within reasonable driving distance, it’s usually a better starting point than searching for a private dentist who happens to accept Medicaid.

Mobile dental units. A growing number of FQHCs and health systems operate mobile dental clinics specifically to reach rural communities and schools that can’t sustain a fixed dental office. If you’re in a county with no permanent dentist at all — like Camden or Gates — a mobile unit serving your area or a nearby school may be your most realistic near-term option.

University and dental-school outreach clinics. East Carolina University runs Community Service Learning Centers in several underserved areas, including one directly in Elizabeth City, offering care through supervised dental students and faculty at lower cost than a typical private practice.

If you’re in the Pasquotank, Camden, or Gates County area specifically, these are worth checking first before assuming there’s simply no dentist available to you.