Children from ages 3 to 17 have found unusually high figures for dental complacency. They were referred, in one instance alone, to have been referred by the Dunn County Health Department, coordinating with Rural Health Dental Clinic and local schools, in almost alarming numbers. Many participating families had two or more children who received services. What can you do to protect your children’s dental health?

“We are happy to provide care for these children, but we worry about the thousands of children who need dental care who were not able to be seen — the ones who continue to have trouble eating, sleeping and paying attention in class because their teeth are in such bad shape,� said Dr. Leipnitz, a physician on hand at the event. “Dentists want to be part of the solution, but we can’t solve access to care on our own. A one-day event like Give Kids A Smile isn’t a cure-all, it’s a wake up call. Our children deserve a better health care system that addresses their dental needs.�

The National Institutes of Health reports that 80% of tooth decay is now found in only 25% of children, primarily from low-income families. Public health programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) are designed to help underserved children, but utilization rates are low, and finding dentists willing to accept these programs is even lower still.

“We’re proud of what we’re accomplishing here today. But charity is not a health care system. People shouldn’t have to depend on charity for basic dental care,� says Dr. Joyce. “Give Kids A Smile is meant to accomplish two things—help children get the dental care they so desperately need AND raise awareness that our children deserve a better health care system that addresses their dental health needs.�

In Wisconsin, only 20% of children enrolled in Medicaid received any dental service in 2005. Medicaid program spends less than 1% on dental services for children and adults, and they do it by paying so far below market that patients choose in increasing numbers to forego care altogether.

For adults, it’s one thing, but when it comes to the care of baby teeth, the infections that can come in the first round of pearly chompers can in fact lead to periodontal infections that can destroy the adult teeth before they even begin to bud.

If you have a dental plan that is not accepted by your dentist of choice, you need to look around for an alternative, rather than simply letting the matter go for a future set of teeth. Failure to provide adequate care for baby teeth may lead to far worse outcomes than the (obvious and inevitable) loss of those teeth, but can cause all kinds of serious, long-term problems that can seriously impact adult teeth as well.

Dental Care Design is proud to offer a number of dental financing solutions:
1 – We accept almost every dental plan on the market.
2 – We accept and refer to the likes of Citi Health Card and Capital-One Healthcare Financing, both of which allow for future payment on today’s dental services.

If you have any doubts, hesitations, questions or financial concerns, we are here to give you the best advice we have at our disposal. We may be able to help you, even if at a significant discount, we may be able to refer you to another dentist, or we may be able to find other financial arrangements that work for you.

Remember, there are times when we can wait for payment, but tooth decay never waits for anything at all.

Lead may poison Crowns, Bridges, Veneers or Dentures, and if you’re not careful, it can put a bit of poison in you, as a women in Ohio recently learned the hard way. She became ill because her outsourced dental work was a Chinese-made crown that was laced with lead, a potent, toxic, heavy metal. The worst part was that for all the cost-cutting and lackluster work, she didn’t even save so much as one thin dime.

Sometimes people (and I freely include myself in that equation) accept small discounts for service of a potentially compromised level. I only buy generic drugs, when they are offered, because I’ve been told they are just as good. When it comes time to service my second car, which is now very old, I always buy used parts because I believe them to be good enough for the purpose. Sometimes, it seems, you just can’t be too careful.

How much would you like to see your airline ticket discounted to know the plane was unsafe, contained poisons, or might in fact kill you in the course of a single flight? How would you feel if I told you that you still had to pay full fare, but that the plane was not up to par just the same, and I wasn’t willing to tell you about it?

That’s what some patients are now experiencing throughout the US and UK.

If you think your grand-kids’ toys were bad for bearing a bit of Chinese lead in the mix, that’s nothing when you consider how unlikely they are to put them in their mouths. Now think about the possibility that your last filling came from a factory that throws lead in the smelter to make the metal flow more easily, and that it’s going to forever be in your mouth. Well, maybe not forever, but at least until you get it removed or die from not trying.

It has been estimated that as many as 20% of the crowns, bridges, veneers, dentures and other dental fixtures used by U.S. dentists are made in China or other foreign countries, according to Newsday. Like other imports, an amount less than 1% of dental products are inspected by the Food and Drug Administration, so there is effectively no one standing guard at night to watch this store. The American Dental Association, at least, is investigating.

The ADA recommends asking these questions before having dental and/or replacement work done (of any kind, including fillings, crowns, caps, dentures, partials, bridges, implants or anything else that will be affixed to your person in permanent or semi-permanent fashion):

1. Do you fashion your own crowns, bridges and other dental materials in the office or buy them from a dental lab?
2. Where is the dental lab located?
3. Does the lab outsource crowns or bridges to a foreign country?
4. What materials are going to be used in my restoration?
5. What other options do I have?

If you are uncomfortable asking these questions, you need to get a bit more courageous. The only thing at stake is your very life, and the clinics that provided those un-tested, un-safe dental materials DID NOT pass the savings on to their patients. That means that the entire risk was assumed by the patient, with every last cent of the benefit falling in the lap of the dentist. If you ask these questions and do not like the answer you are given, you can choose a different dentist (who will almost surely charge the same amount for safe, local, heavily regulated materials).

If the cost is the same, why on earth would you ever accept suspect, sub-standard materials. These fixtures are going into your body forever.