How Poor Dental Care Can Be Deadly
The horrible story of a 12-year-old boy in Maryland, who died of poor dental care, is a stark reminder of how underrated and unavailable our dental insurance programs are.
The boy, Deamante Driver, had a toothache so severe that bacteria had spread to his brain, eventually killing him. As it says at
azcentral.com, "A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him."
But his mother could not afford dental insurance; the family had lost Medicaid coverage, and even those who have it often find that Medicaid dentists are few and far between. In many poor or rural areas people must drive hours to find a dentist to treat them. For those without transportation, the situation is hopeless.
Around half of Americans under age 65 have dental insurance, but few are aware of the importance of dental care in your overall health. For adults, the condition of their teeth and gums has been linked to heart disease, pancreatic cancer, blood borne illness, and more.
And for children, it's clearly worse. Tooth decay is still the single most common childhood disease nationwide, five times as common as asthma. Poor children are more than twice as likely to have cavities as kids who are well off, but the absence of dental insurance for them means that poor children are far less likely to receive treatment for dental care issues.
Facts on:
Dental Insurance
Did you know...
Tooth decay is still the single most common childhood disease nationwide?
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The federal government requires states to provide dental care services to children through Medicaid programs, but the shortage of dentists who will treat them remains the biggest problem so far.
But if he'd had dental insurance Deamante Driver would still be alive.
Clearly, this is a problem that must be resolved.
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