fluoridated Greensboro: 10% of ER cases are dental - CNN

Opinion: The real crisis in America's ERs - CNN.com: We're experiencing this alarming trend right here in Greensboro, North Carolina. For example, one of our local hospitals, the Moses Cone Health Center, finds that about 10% of ER cases are related to dental issues.

Nationally, more than 2.1 million people, the vast majority of them adults, showed up in ERs with dental pain in 2010, double the number just a decade prior, according to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Those ER visits for largely preventable issues cost the health system more than $2 billion that year. And the majority of dental ER visits, nearly 80%, were for common and preventable conditions like abscesses and cavities.