HEALTHCARE - Why Not Dental Coverage?

"Millions of Americans Face Life Without Dental Care" (Series Part-1) PBS Newshour 11/15/2011

(Series Part-2 on new page)

Excerpt

BETTY ANN BOWSER (Newshour): It was 5:00 on a Saturday morning in rural southwest Virginia. By the hundreds, people stood patiently in line in the freezing rain to see a dentist. For the most part, they were low wage earners with no insurance and a mouthful of problems like Bobby Horn.

BOBBY HORN, Virginia: The worst pain you can imagine.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Horn couldn't remember the last time he saw a dentist. Now at just 32 years of age, that kind of neglect has led him to judgment day.

BOBBY HORN: They want to extract them all, oral surgery. They're going to take them all out, get them all out. And then I'm going to have dentures put back in their place.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Like roughly one out of every two Americans, Horn doesn't have dental insurance. His case is extreme, but it illustrates a growing problem.

For lots of reasons, people just aren't going to the dentist like they used to. And the new president of the American Dental Association says they're courting disaster.

DR. WILLIAM CALNON, American Dental Association: We know there are distinct correlations between poor oral health and diabetes, poor oral health and many cardiovascular diseases. There's also a distinct correlation with women between poor oral health and low-birth-weight babies.

Another excerpt

DR. WILLIAM CALNON: I had an individual sitting in my chair right here a couple of days ago. And he is now unemployed. And he was telling me that one thing he's really focusing on is doing a lot of preventive maintenance on his car, so he can make that car last longer.

I look in his mouth and he's got five broken teeth. And I said, "Did you ever think of applying that same concept for preventive maintenance to your mouth?"

And he looked at me dumbfounded and said, "I never thought of it that way."

Am I the only one who wonders why dental has never been considered part of normal health care in the USA?

And I don't mean just now, with the new healthcare law, I mean in our nation's history. Dental problems can lead to infections and the hospital. We include eye exams and sometimes partial coverage for glasses or contacts, so why not dental exams and fillings? DUH