Congratulations to Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing a bill to help provide grants from nonprofits for veterans to receive dental care. Eighty five percent aren’t eligible for dental care.
I have wanted to complete my thoughts for this story for 20 years. Many years ago my late father busted his front teeth and lip from an accidental fall due to a medical condition. He pleaded with Medicare to pay for reimbursement for dental work resulting from the fall. They rubber-stamped every letter, saying routine dental work is not covered. This was not cosmetic!Does a fall on concrete that busted my dad’s front teeth and lip and involved calling 911 sound routine? There needs to be an updated definition of medically necessary dental care that doesn’t limit dental services for our elderly population.
I believe dental work should be covered under Medicare when it is the result of an unintentional injury. We did enormous amounts of research to try to prove our point: that the mouth and teeth are important to daily living, a window on general health status and the gateway of the body.
According to Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General, oral health is important to general health and well being. Oral refers to not only the teeth and gums, but their supporting tissues, the tongue, lips, salivary glands, the chewing muscles and the upper and lower jaws. The mouth allows us to talk and laugh, sigh and kiss, eat and taste, chew and swallow, cry out in pain and convey a world of feelings and emotions through facial expressions, says the report. Oral problems, therefore, affect the ability to eat, the foods we choose, how we look and the way we communicate. A person’s self-image and self-esteem do not need to be more adversely affected by lack of dental care coverage, especially to a person who has speech and facial residuals from three prior strokes like my father. Unrepaired teeth also discourage social interaction when it is crucial to have peers after a serious accident.
My dad had the ability to pay his bills to the emergency department, oral surgeon, dentist and endodontist. He had the education to investigate the system on how to fight the denial claims he kept receiving from Medicare for reimbursement of treatment that he and all of his health care providers believed he needed. What about the people who don’t have the money or ability to fight? Individuals who are poor, medically compromised or who have disabilities are at greater risk for oral diseases, and, in turn, oral diseases further jeopardize their health, says the surgeon general’s report.
Research findings have pointed to possible associations between chronic oral infections and diabetes, heart and lung diseases, stroke and low birth weight premature babies. David Hood, then secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, stated at a meeting I attended that Louisiana was going to begin a program to combat low birth weight pre-term babies believed to be caused from periodontal disease of the mother.
Please, policymakers, take a look at a reasonable reform to include adequate dental coverage in these circumstances. It is critical that the inclusion of oral health services, oral disease prevention programs, oral care delivery systems and current dental reimbursement schedules be studied.
Even children in the LSU AgCenter Body Walk learn if they don’t have a healthy mouth and they wouldn’t be able to eat some foods, especially crunchy ones. This could cause refusal to eat.
My dad broke his tooth on a cherry seed once and ever since we all run a knife through small fruit to check for a seed.
Dental well-being affects your overall health and quality of life, said an AARP speaker on a Zoom that I listened to the other day. Your teeth are like an arch. If you remove one, others misalign. Having all of your teeth prevents the jaw bone from atrophy, a sunken appearance.
Remember these quotes.
All people smile in the same language. A smile is a little curve that sets a lot of things straight. The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. Be true unto your teeth or they will be false unto you. My grandfather would take his denture plate out and try to be funny.
I have not laughed over dental issues. When I got a root canal, the pain that led me to it hurt so much I wanted to bang my head on the dash to try to ease it. I had a crown come out in West Virginia and I couldn’t eat or drink without pain so I cut my trip short.
My wisdom teeth came out during college back in the day when you spent the night in the hospital before the procedure. For some reason, my brother went first and told me it hurt when they removed the stitches days later. He was yanking my chain.
Dad pulled my baby teeth gently with a handkerchief. I only recall the blood. I’ve also had a dental implant with no pain or problems until I got the bill.
Two cities in the Philippines have mandated that municipal employees must smile at all times or risk fines, suspension or firing. They want to eliminate "bureaucratic grumpiness." The sullen sourpuss. The writer in The Sun asks: What if the DMV and Post Office could stop being institutionally ill-tempered and feign good humor while dealing with the public?
And what if it didn’t cost so much.
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