More dental patients seeking care in Lubbock emergency rooms | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

More dental patients seeking care in Lubbock emergency rooms | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock, Texas, is naturally fluoridated.  Tavia Hatfield, director of community outreach at Covenant Health System, said emergency room doctors at Covenant say they’re seeing patients come in for dental care every day. A majority have toothaches related to an abscess or a tooth that needs to be extracted, she said. Some of the cases are accident related, but most are untreated, long-term dental problems.

“I think they go to the emergency room because they’re uninsured, they’re in pain, and they don’t have anywhere else to go,” Hatfield said. “Even though the emergency room does not have dentists on staff, at least they can get pain medication and antibiotics.”