Preventative Dental Care and story of boy who died of an infected tooth

nitasmile · Senior Member

Preventative Dental Care and story of boy who died of an infected tooth

nitasmile · Senior Member

I found the link to today's letters to the editor, some of the opinions I referenced in the initial post.

here it is:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030201487.html

arbilad · Head Chef

I think that the responsibility lies mostly with the mother. If you depend on the government to take care of you, this is the sort of thing that will happen.
Granted, they are dirt poor. But every dentist I've known has done charity work. She could have agreed on a payment plan with a dentist, at least. There are many things that could have been done. Perhaps none of them pleasant or easy. But government cannot prevent all problems and should not try.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

I don't see a lot of value assigning blame, but I do think that it's a complicated issue everytime any child gets sick.

This weekend a kid in our ward had his appendix burst. His parents thought he had the flu, because he was throwing up and feeling sick but because of the way the appendix burst, he didn't have the characteristic pain that makes most people realize that things are worse. Had his mother not had the Spirit to tell her to get him to the ER, he'd probably be dead.

This is my greatest nightmare. I have children who occasionally complain about pain, and everytime it happens, I worry about the cost, the time it takes, and the chances they'll find anything wrong with her. The last 100x times we've gone to the doctor, it seems like they tell you that nothing is wrong with the child. Meanwhile it gets expensive to take them to the doctor, especially when I was paying cobra and had no job.

There's an inherent conflict here where parents are being asked to balance the cost and difficulty of getting care, getting a diagnosis that actually helps, and being told that there's nothing wrong with the child. Suppose we go through the battery of expensive medical tests everytime a child complains of a toothache?

Come to think of it, I've got a daughter with a broken filling right now. We put in a temporary fill using an over the counter remedy. I'd have it fixed if I had any kind of dental insurance, but since I'm still waiting for that insurance to be made available to me, I never really thought about it, but I'm taking a risk.

--Ray

salesortonscom · Wise and Revered Master

Many, many dentists will do a payment plan. There is no reason that a parent cannot get a medical problem taken care of with a child. Some will even do it for free in indigent cases. I even know a guy that traded some stuff he had for dental work. If you know your kid is sick and you don't do everything you can to get them treatment then I feel sorry for the kid but not for the parent. Blaming medicare is just a smokescreen.

Mahonri · Senior Bucketkeeper

Truly a sad tale. I don't know what the answer is. I see it all of the time.

In AZ we have an access program for those who are poor.

I don't accept the access program simply because my overhead per hour is greater than the compensation. Once you accept one patient you are obliged to accept all of them. My office would be over run with non paying patients and then the state has a habit of delaying or denying payment.

-- Edited by Mahonri at 22:01, 2007-03-20

nitasmile · Senior Member

Thanks everyone for your replies. That is impressive Mahonri that you offer so much service.
Hopefully one day Medicaid and other agencies will be better to serve both the patient and the professional.