Do dentists really care about poor patients cause a 12 yr old died due to not being able to afford a dentist?

Question

A 12 yr old boy in MD died due to not having recieved Dental care in time to prevent the infection from going to his brain. The mom is on Medicaid and she works, but has no dental insurance offered - This was a needless and unneccessary death of a child due to not being to find a dentist and specialist that was willing to accept medicaid. So are dentist just in it for the money- or do they REALLY CARE about the work they do and the need that exists among the poor?

The mom had to call a advocate to help find a dentist to take her kids in- there are 500 dentists in the state of MD that accept the medicaid program, in the entire state- thats not many considering how many dentists there are in Md. The dentists complain that the system does pay enough for them to accept medicaid patients. The advocate had to make over a dozen calls to find a dentist that would see the child, and then he was referred to a specialist, she had to postpone the specialist because the state dropped the coverage for her kids due to not sending the paper work to the correct address.
another child in the family was having multiple teeth pulled and the older boy did not complain about pain- why is it that dental is so much more expensive then medical care? why should any child be denied care- and when did medical and dental become just a business - this isn't selling do-dads or pushing paper- this health issues, and the poor in general don't rate healthy teeth or bodies!

The mom did not take the kid in - hmmm, because the coverage had been dropped.As a working mom, and a former medical biller/coder for 11 yrs, and a licensed health/life agent, I can tell you what pain it causes when you don't have coverage. You have to choose between the rent or the meds, the rent or an office visit- when a person is making $10.00 or less in this country, they can't pay, even on payments, for med/dental care - I don't hold the MD's totally responsible for all the medical issues, in fact in Oregon it is a Doctor that is fighting for socialized medicine. Our system needs major overhauls, and even if a dentist is going to lose money out of his pocket- don't you think that hte state can set up dental clinics like they do for medical? Can't the Dentists set up dental clinics that pool resources at sliding scale fees? Is there other choices then what we have ? Are we, as a group of medical and dental professionals - that unimaginitive? Can we come up with no viable solution

Answer 1

I think that it has everything to do with money. If the dentist doesn't get paid, they cannot keep running their office. But a good dentist can at least assess the problem and severity and locate another doctor for the patient who can help or do the operation himself. Everything costs money but there are far and few who will go without to help someone out. I think dental insurance is the least priority of all health insurance. If you want to get good health care, it is something you have to pay for on the side, if your employer provides you insurance. There is a hospital here who can clean and pretty much just do the basics but will refer any patient out who needs a tooth pulled because they do not want to be held liable for anything happening. Now that for instance, is a case where if you know a tooth needs to be taken out and is causing the patient to be in severe pain, the dentist should just do it. In order to become a dentist you have to be trained to do abstractions. Its common sense but all this mumbo jumbo about health care and politics is causing people to go without the necessary treatment. Did the mother negelct her child? No, i dont think so. He seen a dentist and none would do anything with the boy because they did not accept her type of insurance.

What kind of country is this? Politics hold up whats hurting the country and what the people need in order to survive and take care of their families yet, while all the arguing is going on about who can get insured and what not, their families are taken care of just fine. So the question is, who really cares about any of us.

Answer 2

Why blame dentists when the article clearly states that the mother did not take the boy for treatment?

If "we" are not given the opportunity to help, how can we help?

Since you brought it, up, though, perhaps you ought to know why there are so few dentists who can work for Medicaid fees.

Unfortunately, there are so many people living at the poverty level, the backlog for Medicaid care is horrendous. Understand that Medicaid will reimburse the dentist about $35 for removing a tooth. It costs more to pay the staff than that. New Jersey has not had a major fee revision in over 20 years and the fees were horrible 20 years ago. Many would GIVE away the care, but to work for Medicaid fees usually means that the doctor is paying for part of your care out of his own pocket, as he still has to meet expenses. In my little office in a rural area, it costs about $185-200 per hour to open the office. That MUST be paid before I have a penny to put in my own pocket. I can't see a Medicaid patient and do four extractions, which would take about an hour, and lose $60 of my own money. I do not mean I'd make $60 less than usual. I mean it would cost me $60 out of my pocket to make up the difference so I could pay my staff and the electric company, etc., and I'd have nothing at all for my efforts and liability.

Answer 3

You know this is a very tough question, while we LIKE to think that everyone is kind hearted this is not always true, BUT I KNOW there are dentistries out there that take medicaid there are even dentist out there that ONLY take medicaid, I have to put the blame somewhat on the mother because maybe if she had tried a little harder she would have been able to find a dentist that accepted medicaid. YOU HAVE TO LOOK FOR THEM THEY DONT COME TO YOU.

Answer 4

We need more info here. Are you sure she just didn't neglect to get treatment in time?? Further why should dentists offer free services??? Their office is a business just like any other and operates on a pay for service system. Frankly I get tired of folks asking for a hand out. Unfortunately in this case a child has died but I think a closer look at the mother is in order here.

Answer 5

ask this question? How can the US justify sending foriegn aid to all these countries that hate America and then say that there is not enough money for Social Security or Health Ins.? the neocons say get govt out of our lives? but look what we get? greed, low wages ,so you cant afford coverage or treatment but yu can still be taxed to death to send some despot his yearly stipend to "help" the US?people?we have a sick system? CEO"s getting multimillion dollar bonus's and bitching about minimum wage? Irony? Greed? who knows? poor kid deserved more than he got!---maybe in 2008 we will get tired of all these politicians and vote them all out of a job!

Answer 6

Well I agree with you! It's all about money in todays world! The medical crap is all over the place. We actually do have insurance because of my husbands job, BUT.....we can't afford all the co-pays! Not enough money for that! So I feel like I'm in the same boat with my medicines I have to take. Heck! Our dog even got hurt bad on a weekend, and we had to beg some people we barely know to get some money because they would not treat him without payment in full. Which was about 400.00! They would rather have him suffer I guess. Yep, if your not rich in this country, you don't count for crap!

Answer 7

i think we need to go back to the good ol days when dr,s had to except what you had to offer like a chicken or a goat the world would be better off i my self get midicaid and it is rediculas that the state of ohio now changed there insurance and you have to have a referral to another dr if there names not on your card you are appointed 1 dr and even if you have no idea who he is you have to take him its bull . yea we have a book that tells us what dentist we can see and you call them and they dont take new patients whats the deal i agree they dont care about the poor they even have the case woprkers trained to treat you like you are taking assistance away from them its sad

Answer 8

That's heart breaking. I'm sure that there are compassionate Dentists. I would like to know all the details before ragging on Dentists in general.

Answer 9

Like any field, there are some very fine dentists with good hearts but it's the rotten ones that get the publicity.