wjz.com - Study: Dental Care Lacking Among Poor Children

wjz.com - Study: Dental Care Lacking Among Poor Children: "Fewer than a third of Maryland's nearly 500,000 Medicaid children were seen by a dentist in 2006, according to a study that found a chronic shortage of pediatric dentists willing to deal with Medicaid paperwork.

Experts consider the situation serious, since a lack of routine dental care can lead to pain and illness that disrupts eating, sleep and learning, and can even lead to death.

'One abscess is all you need,' said Ilaya Rajagopal, a University of Maryland dental fellow working a two-year stint at the Walnut Street Dental Clinic in downtown Hagerstown."

Maryland is 94% fluoridated