Meth mouth: Ugly legacy of drug is taxing jail, prison medical budget

[liberalnurse]

Methamphetamine....signs and symptoms of use and abuse:

The rampant use of methamphetamine has placed a hardy burden onto the jail heath care services:

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view2/1,4382,600140819,00.html



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The unsightly "meth mouth" phenomenon has several implications for a Utah community already burdened by a methamphetamine crisis.
As has occurred as use of the drug has moved east, meth mouth is taxing dental budgets at Utah prisons and jails and in cities across the country like Minneapolis.; Raleigh, N.C.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Portland, Ore.; and Knoxville, Tenn. In Utah, inmates now have to wait longer and longer for dental services because hours allotted for dental care are clogged by meth addicts with rotting teeth and painful abscesses.

Contract dentists are having to put in more time to keep up with the demand for dental visits. Some jails have a two-month waiting list.
Dentists at jails in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties say the vast majority of their patients are meth addicts. And this condition they call "meth mouth" is wreaking havoc on jail and prison dental budgets.


"Meth mouth" — a condition rampant among methamphetamine users and particularly evident in jail and prison populations throughout the country.
"It's pretty obvious when an inmate comes in addicted to methamphetamine," said James Ondricek, Davis County Jail nursing supervisor.
"They smile and you see their teeth all rotted out and fallen out at the gum line."




Colby Anderson, 29.
He had been smoking meth on and off for the past 10 or 12 years when police busted him recently where he was living in a Woods Cross motel. Today, he is in jail for meth possession — and the county is paying the tab for his dental care.

He's been watching his teeth disintegrate.
"You slowly see your teeth just get eaten away."
He once had an abscess the size of a softball. He vowed to quit meth then but couldn't kick the super-addictive drug.
"You go right back to it," Anderson said. "The pain goes away and you go right back to it."
Once he lost a tooth while eating a Wendy's sandwich.
Meth ate away the glue that held his braces on as a teenager.
He is now missing 10 or 15 teeth.

[cornermouse]

1. I see we now have a movement underway to stigmatize anyone

who can't afford dental care as being a meth user...

[amazona]

3. yes I've noticed that too

Are we the only people awake on this board?

Great way to stigmatize poor and lower middle class people who can't afford "cosmetic dentistry" services costing tens of thousands of dollars and seldom or only very partially covered by dental insurance.

It's the American way. That guy over there looks funny...so he won't be hired to work at my company any time soon. <sigh>

[cornermouse]

4. It's a process

Step 1. Stigmatize
Step 2. Criminalize.

[liberalnurse]

7. This post was not directed at

you or your peer group.

[liberalnurse]

10. Be proud my friend.....

This is your tax dollars at work.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[liberalnurse]

12. The jails typical only charge inmates $5.00 IF

and only IF they have money on their books. The service is free if they do not have the funds. This is a tremendously gracious community service. The repugs have nukes 3/4 of our free clinics and services for the indigent.


I thought you would be able to understand that.....OOPS, my misconception. Does this explaination help you? There is much more information at the link provided.

[EFerrari]

2. We're going to a rally tomorrow because the Mayor

wants to cut the funds for outpatient substance abuse treatment in HALF, and he claims we'll have the same number of treatment slots.

This would be a disaster for San Francisco.

[liberalnurse]

9. I have seen the drug treatment funding

go straight down the toilet since the early 90's. The health insurance business couldn't make a big enough profit! What a shameful bunch.

It looks like the Mayor is making budget cuts....it's always the needy who have the weakest voice that gets hit.

[Kingshakabobo]

5. It's a shame that most of these people are in prison....

It's a shame that most of these people are in prison in the first place. They belong in treatment.


Liberalnurse, what do you think about the treatment provided in prisons?

As a gay man, I've seen too many people that have gone off the deep-end with this stuff. I've never seen anything like it. In the past couple years I've seen it ruin several careers and kill a few people.

[liberalnurse]

8. In Corrections,

they refer to the 12-Step System as in AA. They do have drug counselors and 12 Step Meetings. With an Inpatient Treatment Program, the individual has their lifestyle re-adjusted and the focus is all,24/7 designed for recovery.

In Prison, they already have a lifestyle change via the sentence....an obvious consequence of their usage but it is more on the design of Outpatient Treatment format....less confrontational. The inmate essentially can take away what he/she wants if the desire for sobriety is there. It's harder getting the recovery down when incarcerated as they don't get to incorporate their "treatment lessons" into their home life or practice sobriety challenges. They maybe sentenced for years which puts a damper on that essential component. They definitely get "dry" there but sobriety is all up to the individual who truly wants to change.

This methamphetamine is escalating. I see these folks daily. On occasion, I find a bloody tooth on the floor! Oh yuck!!!!

[EFerrari]

11. L.A. County Jail is the biggest provider of mental health services

in the world.

:(