Free Dental Clinic Draws Huge Crowds - Health News Story - KCCI Des Moines

Free Dental Clinic Draws Huge Crowds - Health News Story - KCCI Des Moines:

Iowa is 92% fluoridated: "Some of the 800 people who drove in from all over the state arrived at the crack of dawn. Officials said there were as many as 500 in line when the doors opened."

Oshawa kids decaying in oral health

Oshawa kids decaying in oral health: Oshawa, Ontario, Canada is fluoridated:

"Oshawa kids decaying in oral health

Oshawa elementary schools are the most at risk for tooth decay and cavities, says Dr.
Patricia Abbey, the director of the oral health division for the Durham Region Health Department.'Oshawa has the highest rate of tooth decay and cavities,' she says.'This can be an excellent indicator of poverty.' The study looked at kindergarten students from the past school year in various schools across the region. The data was then charted and separated by municipalities to determine the most high-risk schools and areas.'You can see a large grouping of red dots here,' says Fangli Xie, an epidemiologist with the health department as she points to the south end of Oshawa."

Indiana is 95% fluoridated “I’m tired of seeing kids have tooth decay,” dentist Roberts said.

idsnews.com | Indiana Daily Student |:

Dentists: Reduced Medicaid payments threatening practices - Salt Lake Tribune

Dentists: Reduced Medicaid payments threatening practices - Salt Lake Tribune:

Salt Lake City (Utah) is fluoridated:

"The toll on children

On Wednesday, Horgesheimer said, he saw several children under the age of four who had more than 10 cavities. Not old enough, or cooperative enough, to be treated in a chair, they'll have to be sedated in an operating room, where he'll perform their extractions, fillings, root canals or crowns.

One lethargic 7-year-old girl on Medicaid showed up at his office that same day with a gnawing pain and fever. A serious tooth infection had spread to her cheek and was starting to cause her eyelid to close.

'Had I not taken out that tooth today,' the dentist said, 'she would have been up at the hospital seeking treatment from the ER.'

Horgesheimer wishes this child were a rarity. She's not.

An attending dentist at Primary Children's Medical Center, Horgesheimer said 20 to 30 children come in every week with serious, yet preventable, dental infections. What could have been avoided with good oral hygiene, routine check-ups and timely care is instead treated with intravenous antibiotics at many times more the cost."

Dentists: Reduced Medicaid payments threatening practices - Salt Lake Tribune

Dentists: Reduced Medicaid payments threatening practices - Salt Lake Tribune: "Dentists who treat children on Medicaid are threatening to stop taking new patients -- or see them at all -- if a budget error that cut their payments by a third isn't fixed soon."

Therapeutics of caries prevention-Concepts and prospects - Acta Odontologica Scandinavica

Therapeutics of caries prevention-Concepts and prospects - Acta Odontologica Scandinavica: "Despite intensive research, water fluoridation and, where practiced, diet control, remain the most effective methods of preventing caries. In this paper, a number of approaches discussed appear to hold promise that they may enhance the caries preventive effect of fluoride, and others, when developed and applied, may hasten the day when dental caries will cease to be a public health problem."

"Despite intensive research, water fluoridation and, where practiced, diet control, remain the most effective methods of preventing caries. In this paper, a number of approaches discussed appear to hold promise that they may enhance the caries preventive effect of fluoride, and others, when developed and applied, may hasten the day when dental caries will cease to be a public health problem."

Fulton Sun

Missouri is 80% fluoridated: "In 2005, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services released the Show Me Your Smile study, highlighting dental health in Missouri's youth. It found that 55 percent of third grade children had cavities and 27 percent of those children needed treatment for that."

Local dentists refused Medicaid patients so "She settled on ReachOut Healthcare America, the Phoenix-based company focused on serving schools where a large number of children are economically disadvantaged. Using a dentist based out of Kansas City, it filled 27 elementary students' cavities in two days at South Callaway."

BurdenDoc_04-06.pdf (application/pdf Object)

In fluoridation-mandated Illinois, "Fifty-five percent of the third-graders have had dental caries experience that includes treated and untreated cavities. Of the 55 percent with caries experience, 30 percent have untreated cavities (cavitated lesions). Four percent of the children with untreated cavities need urgent dental treatment, indicating pain, abscess or severe decay. The numbers are higher among lower income, rural, and minority populations."

http://www.bridgetohealthysmiles.com/files/BurdenDoc_04-06.pdf

Bridge to Healthy Smiles |

Fluoridation has been state-mandated in Illinois for decades. But even more money is required for dental care: "The Bridge to Healthy Smiles Coalition was successful in getting $2 million to open an estimated 10 dental clinics in underserved areas throughout Illinois. Governor Quinn signed into law SB 1393 which establishes procedures for awarding grants to build public infrastructures to improve access to dental care for low income residents. $2 million to fund construction of dental clinics was included in the Capital Bill that became law on July 13, 2009." Let's see if they can get any dentists to work there.

Environmental Health News: Front Page

"One in 10 Americans have been exposed to [tap] drinking water that fails to meet federal standards."

Free clinic in Brighton says a mouthful about economy - The Denver Post

Free clinic in Brighton says a mouthful about economy - The Denver Post: "BRIGHTON — Despite missing, throbbing or rotting teeth, hundreds of Coloradans were all smiles Friday as they received dental care at a free clinic that also is open today." Colorado is 74% fluoridated. "By 6:15 a.m., at patient No. 808, the line was closed because organizers did not believe they could fit any more patients in the day's schedule."

"Dentist Pasco Scarpella of Brighton examined two people who had tried to pull their own teeth."

7930.pdf (application/pdf Object)

7930.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Kaiser Family Foundation "Oral Histories: Report From a Dental Fair (Virginia Eastern Shore) for Uninsured Adults"

In interviews with patients, dental professionals, and fair organizers, these key issues emerged:

• Low-income adults lack access to health and dental coverage. Although most of the people
attending the fair were employed, few had dental coverage and most lacked any health
coverage. Without insurance, dental care – even preventive care and cleanings – is unaffordable
for low-income adults. Often, they seek care only when their pain is no longer bearable.

• Uninsured adults have vast unmet oral health needs. Most interviewees had not received dental
care in over a year, and for some it had been many years. All had routine care needs and a
large number had urgent needs. Nearly $500,000 worth of oral health care was provided at the
weekend fair, including 1,263 tooth extractions. Nearly 30 patients had between one-third and
all of their teeth extracted. Many of the teeth that were extracted could have been saved with
treatment, but recognizing that access to follow-up care was unlikely, the providers’ primary
objectives were to alleviate their patients’ pain and prevent infection.

• Untreated dental problems have serious health, employment, and social consequences.
Beyond causing pain, dental problems exacerbated patients’ chronic health conditions. Lost
hours of work due to mouth pain, the negative impact of poor or missing teeth on employability,
and social stigma also burdened those with untreated oral health needs.

• The dental fair is a band-aid, not a cure. While providing critical help to underserved
communities, broader solutions are needed to ensure timely and adequate access to coverage
and oral health care for low-income and uninsured Americans.

This publication (#7930) is available on the Kaiser Family Foundation’s website at www.kff.org.

A companion video is available at http://www.kff.org/healthreform/hr090909video.cfm.

Virginia is 95% fluoridated: "'It’s 2009 and dental disease
is everywhere and we can go anywhere in this state and set up a
project like this and [people] will line up for five or six hours and
we’ll do the same thing. That’s notthe answer.'
Terry Dickinson,Dental fair organizer"

Tavis Smiley . Shows . Stan Brock . August 21, 2009 | PBS

In 1985, Stan Brock founded Remote Area Medical, known as RAM, a nonprofit organization designed to provide free healthcare to third world countries. In 1992, he decided to turn his attention to people in need here in the U.S., particularly those living in rural areas.

But recently RAM set up shop here in [fluoridated] Los Angeles, its first ever stop in a major urban area, and the turnout was staggering. They set up "100 dental chairs" and "pulled a few thousand bad teeth." If dentists and physicians could cross state lines to practice, "we would have seen twice the number."

ADA.org: ADA News: Association lauds U.S. House workforce legislation

After 60+ years of water fluoridation, 50+ years of fluoridated toothpaste, 40+ years of fluoride dental treatments, "the demand for dental care in certain areas of the country has been rapidly growing," according to the American Dental Association.

Dental problems common cause of ER visits - USATODAY.com

Virginia is 95% fluoridated: "Dental visits are the fifth-most-common reason for a visit to the UVA Medical Center"

Dental care in short supply for low-income Wisconsin children - JSOnline

In overly fluoridated US children

"By the Numbers

* More than 1 in 20, roughly 1.1 million children, had urgent dental problems.
* 1 in 3, roughly 6.5 million children, had untreated tooth decay.
* 1 in 9 had untreated decay in 3 or more teeth.
* 1 in 3 had received dental care the previous year, compared with half of children with private health insurance.
* 1 in 8 never sees a dentist.

Source: Government Accountability Office"

Dental care in short supply for low-income Wisconsin children - JSOnline

"The lack of access to dental care for children and adults on limited incomes is one of the most entrenched, widespread and overlooked problems of the U.S. health care system.

It also is one of the most marked examples of the differences in health care for the poor and everyone else. Dental care is the most common unmet medical need among children. And the children most at risk - those in families with limited incomes - have the least access to care.

'Spend a day looking in the mouth of every pediatric patient who comes into our clinic, and I guarantee that at least once or twice, you will be horrified,' said David Waters, a pediatrician at the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, which provides care primarily to people covered by [Wisconsin] BadgerCare Plus or who are uninsured."

Dental care in short supply for low-income Wisconsin children - JSOnline

Wisconsin is 90% fluoridated: "Lucia Alba knew something was wrong when her son said his teeth hurt while eating an apple.

Carlos, her son, isn't a fussy child. But a few days earlier, he had mentioned that his teeth hurt. This time, Alba got a flashlight and looked in his mouth. She saw blood.

Her son, 7 years old at the time, had abscesses, or infections, in two of his teeth.

He had never been to a dentist. Neither had his siblings.

'I stopped trying, because every time I called up the dentist, I would get the same answer,' Alba said. 'All the time. They weren't accepting my insurance. They had a long waiting list.'"

The Role of Fluorochemicals in Agriculture � Eco 1st Technology Group

"Unfortunately, fluoride tends to amass in the physique rather than being burning out. The amassed fluorides can reach damaging or poisonous levels, generally when it is rarely strong or in produce grown where fluoride-based pesticides are used. Fluoride holds with other elements very easily, and it may carry along other elements like lead and arsenic."

Dentists Drill for Dollars at SmartMoney.com

"The Better Business Bureau says dentists are among the top 50 professions consumers complain about, topping even lawyers. Last year the number of complaints rose 9 percent, to 3,570. Consumer advocates say some desperate dentists are up-selling their patients, telling them they need $1,000 crowns and tooth sealants they could easily do without. “It’s a very vulnerable place you sit in as a patient,” says Anika Ball, executive director of the American Society of Dental Ethics—and some dentists may be taking advantage."