Monday, December 11, 2017

Fluoridation Fails Phoenix Arizona

Dental Mission of Mercy: Free dental work in Phoenix: Roughly 300 dentists, oral surgeons, hygienists, lab technicians and up to 1,700 volunteers from all over Arizona are working together for two days to relieve pain and infection or repair teeth for those who cannot afford dental care, said Kevin Earle, the executive director for the Arizona Dental Association.

Fluoridation Fails Maryland

Maryland is 96% fluoridated, yet:



• 42,327 Maryland adults visited emergency departments with chronic dental conditions during fiscal year 2016, at an average charge of $537, for a total charge of $22.7 million.



 • Medicaid paid for 53 percent of the visits — 22,254 of them — with an average charge of $446 per visit for a total charge of almost $10 million.



• 25 percent returned within a year with a similar complaint, most within 15 days. For those patients, the total charge was $2.3 million and the readmission rate for dental care was much higher for Medicaid-enrolled patients than for all other conditions.



 • 145 of the patients required hospitalization, with an average charge of $9,900 per visit, for a total of $1.4 million.

• Altogether, the total Medicaid charges for emergency department visits for chronic dental complaints were $11.3 million.



• Altogether, the total Medicaid charges for emergency department
visits for chronic dental complaints were $11.3 million
In Washington County, there were 1,184 emergency department visits
for chronic dental conditions among adults. More than half — 630 — were Medicaid
recipients. The total charge for the Medicaid patients was $297,045.