Katrina vanden Heuvel: Not Silent Anymore (lack of access to dental care)

[marmar]

from The Nation:

BLOG | Posted 03/11/2007 @ 7:04pm
Not Silent Anymore


In 2000, the Surgeon General released a report describing "the silent epidemic of oral diseases" affecting mainly the poor due to lack of access to dental care. Two weeks ago, that silence was broken in Maryland when a 12 year old homeless boy, Deamonte Driver, died tragically due to an untreated molar infection which spread to his brain.

Driver's death has again drawn attention to how very few dentists are available to the poor and working class. In Maryland, for example, only 900 out of 5,500 dentists even accept Medicaid. As a consequence, there is a struggle to get an appointment, and travel time can take as much as three hours for a single dental visit. Moreover, in the case of Driver's mother, according to The Post, "…bakery, construction and home health-care jobs she has held have not provided insurance."

In response to this child's horrific death, Maryland's junior Senator, Ben Cardin, introduced the Children's Dental Health Improvement Act of 2007 last week that would authorize $40 million (less than 4 hours of Iraq funding) to help community health centers hire dentists to serve poor children. It would also help states in increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for dentists. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=174178

[Mnemosyne]

1. Are we officially a third world nation now? n/t

[SoCalDem]

3. Fraid so.

Here's the thing.. Every poor kid is KNOWN to schools. Preventative dental care could be handled through school records. Any kid with a "lunch program" ID is probably in need of dental care. Perhaps in addition to a School nurse, there should be a School dental tech who could ccheck kids' teeth every 9 months, and if needed provide them with a referral to a publicn health dental clininc.

I can tell you from experience in hiring and interviewing people, that there are some people who cannot get jobs because of their teeth..

Having missing front teeth or badly decayed "visible" teeth hamper a person's self esteem and the way they present themselves.

[mopinko]

4. used to have to have a dental exam to get into school.

had to have it for k, 5, 9, just like checkups. they dropped that here in illinois, right about the time st ronnie's cuts hit the medicaid budget. can't afford to give poor kids dental checks? simple. don't require them anymore!

[Mnemosyne]

8. You are so right about the teeth SCD, and I completely agree

with you on dental check-ups/care in school. Medicaid dental can be worthless to a child if the only dentists that accept it are the 'bad' dentists. We have only one dentist in our rural town, that takes a Medicaid card, and he is terrible. He could not care less if he hurts the kids; which of course leads to refusal to go by the poor kids here.

Teeth can kill. I am so disgusted/angry/sad over the death of this little boy. How he must have suffered; just for being poor. :grr::cry:

An old ex- friend of mine had her teeth rotting out of her head and wondered why she had horrible headaches! Duh.


Love the Bunny toon! b3ta? :hi:

[SoCalDem]

11. probably b3ta

I love those loons:)

[MissWaverly]

2. we need universal health care

we need to do it, this piecemeal system is broken, I know what Andy went through with his
cancer and no health insurance, nobody should have to go through that.

[cosmicdot]

5. per that 2000 report

"Satcher noted that major barriers to oral health include socioeconomic factors, such as lack of dental insurance or the inability to pay out of pocket, or problems of access that involve transportation and the need to take time off from work for health needs. While 44 million Americans lack medical insurance, about 108 million lack dental insurance. Only 60 percent of baby boomers receive dental insurance through their employers, and most older workers lose their dental insurance at retirement."

Heaven knows why dental and visual aren't part of the current Medicare program.


Summary Report
http://www.cdc.gov/OralHealth/factsheets/sgr2000-05.htm

First-ever Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health Finds Profound Disparities in Nation's Population
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/may2000/nidcr-25.htm

[kickysnana]

6. Oh don't get me started...

Doctors cannot do dental work it is against the law.

Here in Minnesota in 2001 there was ONE dental clinic that took Medical assistance in the whole state. (Model Cities in St Paul)

The University of Minnesota provided free or very low cost dental care through student teaching for decades no longer does and when I last checked did not take medical assistance.

I was able to see good dentists on Minnesota Medical Assistance until 1997. I had "check-ups" that found nothing wrong despite the pain and swelling until I was able to get into the U of MN. I had an infection in an impacted wisdom tooth that had been there at least one possibly two years in Dec 1999. Unfortunately the infection had taken hold in the bone and spread and when ti flared up and I called six months later I could not longer go there. It took me a year to secure an oral surgeon who took two proceedures to remove more teeth and clean out the infection. Repeat this over and over until a final oral surgery in Nov 2005 by then MN had started paying and I could see someone beside quacks. Lost 10 teeth, 5 of them never had a cavity. My sister was in the emregency room four times in 2003 because she ad absesses and could not get into to see a dentist without paying cash up front and she had just become totaloly disabled with Chrones, and RA. Her SSDI was just approved a month ago after years of fighting.

I am sitting in the office of the good oral surgeon in late 2006 and a guy comes in from an office nearby his face twisted in pain, that horrigle grey color people get when they are dying.. He is begging for help. He had been scheduled for an extraction that morngin and had been on blood thinners which he had to stop for the proceedure and when he got to that dentist the dentist had decided not to do the proceedure. One hospital has a dental resident on call in the emregency room in the whole state and I told him he could go there since from his color I doubted he was going to last long enough to make it another day. Again doctors cannot do dental work. So if you go into the emergency room with an infected tooth they can only give you medicine and tell you to see a dentist. This oral surgeon said he would have to get premission to do the proceedure and that would take at least 48 hours as far as he knew. He was glad I was there with the emergency alternative as they knew how to get through that 48 hour rule there I was told.

Third World covers it nicely.

[dflprincess]

12. It is still very difficult to find a dentist that will take public programs in Minnesota

They just don't pay the dentist enough to cover the cost of the procedure. My mom's dentist in no longer accepting new clients on medical assistance or MnCare, but at least he didn't cut off his old ones.

[PerfectSage]

7. Practice preventative dentistry. Buy a water pik.

& brush with baking soda & use Biotene.

http://www.laclede.com/


Once pockets form (98% of Americans have early, moderate or severe pocket formation), brushing and flossing alone cannot remove toxic waste products from these "below the gum line spaces". The only way known to accomplish this flushing away of the disease-producing toxins is by use of an oral irrigator, i.e. Via-jet or Water Pik tm. If the pockets are shallow, the regular Via-jet or Water Piktm Tip is adequate. If the pockets have become moderate (even in limited areas), then a "Special Tip" or elongated directional (cannulae) tip is necessary.

http://www.mizar5.com/pdann7.htm

[NDP]

9. This is one thing that has always gotten me. Why do employers divide dental benefits

from health benefits. I don't pay for anything out of my paycheck for health care, but I pay $32/month for dental benefits. Why? Are your teeth not a part of your body? Can you not "die" from dental issues? Get a cavity, or an abscessed tooth, and tell me that dental issues are not health issues. That tooth affects every part of your body.

Dental coverage should be a part of every health care plan.

[Auntie Bush]

10. Yes, periodontal disease can even cause heart attacks! But that

is a rather new (about 12-14 years ago) discovery.

When I heard that boy died from an abscessed tooth...my first thought was to wonder why we don't now have dental insurance for Medicare and Medicaid if dental problems can kill you. I'd say that makes it a medical problem.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. So should vision coverage.

I've worn glasses since I was a little kid, and could not navigate any further than from the bedroom to the bathroom without my glasses, and I certainly could not drive. And old people get macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and all that stuff, as well as need glasses.

Glasses and dental care are NOT a luxury.

[MountainLaurel]

14. And mental health coverage as well n/t