By Justine Griffin
Charles Lee had been dealing with an excruciating toothache for days.
The pain made it hard to eat or sleep or focus on work. But Lee, 54, didn’t have dental insurance. His job as a delivery truck driver offered only a supplemental policy that was too expensive. He feared he needed a root canal, which he knew could cost hundreds of dollars even with insurance.
The Department of Health in Pinellas County referred Lee to a free dental clinic in Clearwater, just blocks from his home, where a volunteer dentist found the cause of his issue and replaced two fillings for the price of a donation.
“I had nowhere to go. I had no affordable health care. I went into a Walgreens to see what they could do, and walked out with my tooth still killing me because they wanted $119 just to see me,” said Lee, one of the 27 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 to 64 who, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, are living with untreated dental issues.
Most adults who don’t have dental insurance end up in emergency rooms because of tooth or gum problems. The number of patients who go to the ER with dental-related issues surged from 1.1 million in 2000 to 2.1 million in 2010, and continues to rise, according to the American Dental Association. The organization says that up to 1.65 million ER visits a year could be better handled at dental clinics.
While the Affordable Care Act and low-income insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid have improved Americans’ access to health care, barriers still remain for adult dental care.
Local health departments, including in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, offer some low-income dental plans to residents who qualify. And children’s dental care is covered nearly in full through Medicaid, the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program and the ACA.
But Florida Medicaid plans for adults provide dental-related reimbursements only to participants who need emergency services to alleviate pain or infection or denture-related procedures, according the Agency for Health Care Administration.
At the Community Dental Clinic in Clearwater, dentists and hygienists convinced Charles Lee to come back for several follow up appointments, which helped get his dental care on track. And Lee didn’t have to worry about how much he was paying for the continuing service.