Three of my beautiful little grandsons went to the dentist today. There checkups were not good. Between the three of them they had more than a dozen cavities.
Their mom doesn’t make enough money to provide health care insurance so she receives Medicaid.
The dentist at the clinic decided that all three children needed all cavities (even the most minor ones) drilled and filled, several teeth capped and for the oldest (age 6), two front teeth extracted.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that my grandchildren are able to get good medical care, but we’re talking baby teeth that are all going to fall out in the next few years. None of the boys had tooth aches, problems chewing or any other complaints. Their mom only took them to the clinic to get their teeth cleaned and to make sure they were developing properly.
Her visit probably ended up costing at least $2500.00 if not more. For baby teeth that are going to fall out on their own.
Now consider this: Those boy’s uncle, who is 25 years-old, Has suffered for months with several bad teeth that he can’t afford to have taken care of. All the dentists that he has gone to tell him that they need to be paid in advance because he has no insurance. He had only enough to fix one tooth so that’s all they did. He left still suffering.
If the system was running right my grandsons could have gotten the treatment that they NEEDED today AND their uncle could have gotten his tooth ache taken care of and there would have still been a little left for the Tooth Fairy.
