If any of you missed Tuesday nights broadcast of Frontline go now to the PBS website and watch it. It deals with an important and overlooked aspect of health care, dentistry.
We face a dental nightmare of untreated patients suffering intense pain and unable to see a dentist. Most dentists do not see Medicaid patients. If you are poor you tend to put off dental care until the pain is beyond bareable. Go to the emergency room and you get antibiotics and some pain killer but no treatment fro the real problem. Please follow me past the lovely orange curlicue for more.
Adults that need dental care find that they can not afford it. Many health insurance plans have no dental coverage. Credit is offered at 29% interest to pay for the care but if you are on a limited income these payments can take half of your income. Dental pain is agonizing. Dental infections develop into heart disease. Having a poor smile can rob you of your self worth and make it hard to get a job or keep a job. And efforts by nonprofits to address this issue have been fought by the dental profession.
There is a second issue involving Medicaid kids programs and dental work. For profit companies are moving into states with generous programs and treating Medicaid kids as a business proposition. It appears through that these companies have been doing unnecessary work on young kids causing them needs pain and suffering.
You really should watch this show. Many new ideas are presented that we can be inspired by as we seek to provide health care for all. And a lot of corruption is exposed as well.
As we talk about health care dental care should always be a part of the plan.