A few days ago Alternet put up a piece by Katrina vanden Heuvel on dental care for the poor in the greatest nation in the entire history of the earth and no doubt all the other planets as well. That care ranges from bad to nonexistent, as I already knew. My 68-year-old autistic brother lives in a group home and works part-time for $6 an hour. Thus his dental care is “covered” by Medicaid, which in practice means that my brother and I and our sister pay his substantial dental bills.
Fine. We can do it.
But I can’t get this comment on Katrina’s posting out of my mind:
I’m a young widowed mom of a 5 yr old and barely afford the (high deductible) major medical insurance I have for my daughter. Medical insurance, much less dental insurance, for myself isn’t even a possibility.
3 yrs ago I had beautiful teeth.
Then I lost a filling and simply didn’t have $1100 to fix it (cost of root canal and replacing the filling). Infection and decay from that tooth slowly spread to my other teeth. Thus far I’ve lost most of my lower jaw teeth, and several of my upper jaw teeth. It would cost around $7000 - 8000 to save my remaining teeth.
If I could just afford to have the bad teeth pulled - that would at least deter the deterioration from spreading to the healthy teeth. But extraction is $400-600 PER tooth, I don’t have that kind of money. All I can do is wait to lose all of my teeth and hopefully scrape enough money together for dentures.
It’s been 4 yrs since my husband’s death and I won’t even consider dating because of my teeth. It’s so embarrassing and humiliating that I rarely venture into a public setting. I’m even self-conscious about smiling at my daughter because I feel like I’m setting a bad example.
The point I was trying to make is that it’s so much more than a physical ailment. It can literally control your life and relationships — and there is no where to turn for assistance or relief.
We can blame every single person who voted for O.I.L. (Our Illustrious Leader), if not the first time, then certainly the second, for such a despicable, arrogant, uncaring culture. The repercussions of this attitude will take years, if not decades, to change.
Posted by: Political Sports on January 31, 2008 11:40 AMIt really is extremely disappointing that the only person who had emerged on the horizon with the understanding, commitment and courage to remedy this sort of misery permeating our nation has dropped out of the race. Oh well, maybe one of the remaining possibilities will bring John Edwards back to us by asking him to be the VP running mate.
Posted by: mfd on January 31, 2008 11:53 AMLast week a man I knew for about ten years died unpleasantly and unnecessarily, in part for lack of dental care.
He could not afford to get two infected teeth pulled at the respected clinic he preferred, which is run by a public university. He drank a lot to deal with the pain. He went to a less respected dental clinic that accepts Medicaid. They turned him away because he was drunk. So did his methadone clinic. He was briefly hospitalized due to the drinking but the emergency room people said his teeth weren't bad enough to pull right away and told him to make an appointment. A few days later he died, for reasons not yet determined but almost certainly linked to the drinking and the pain.
The last time he talked to me he was saying he wanted to confirm his voter registration for the upcoming election.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam on January 31, 2008 5:57 PM