JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): This week, we have reported extensively on the health impacts of soda and junk food and some moves in this country to counter them.
Tonight, from our occasional reports from journalism students around country, a story about the situation in El Salvador.
Producer Roberto Daza and correspondent Carl Nasman are graduates of the Journalism School at the University of California, Berkeley.
A note: There are some images that viewers may find disturbing.
RAY SUAREZ: Now, the second of two stories on increasing access to dental care.
Last night, NewsHour health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser looked at problems of costs, coverage and access. Tonight, she examines one program in Alaska which has been met with both praise and skepticism.
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
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
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