Oral healthcare unobtainable to those is U.S. dental deserts

Decried as “social injustice” by one dental professional in Florida who witnesses daily how a lack of access to dental services impacts the health of their local community, a host of disadvantaged communities either have more people than dentists or those willing to treat the low income and uninsured, leaving unable to access the oral healthcare they need.

An article carried by News Medical: Life Sciences notes that this lack of equitable access to dental care means that the “teeth, gums and palates” of patients seen by Evara Health, a not-for-profit clinic which treats the medically uninsured and those on government programs like Medicaid, are "[m]arked in painful abscesses, dangerous infections, and missing molars are tales of unequal access to care."

What makes this even worse is that all of these conditions are preventable of people have access to regular checkups by dentists, which is unfortunately not an option for patients who simply don’t have consistent access to oral healthcare or any access at all in many cases.

As the director of dental services at Evara Health, Adrienne Grimmett notes:

"You will never be totally well if you don't have oral health."

The link between oral and general health is an increasingly recurrent theme worldwide – such that the ADA’s theme for its flagship oral health promotional event, Dental Health Week is closely linked the mouth and body are – and is felt particularly strongly in countries like the United States where "vulnerable and marginalized communities ... are left behind in these dental deserts", deleteriously impacting people are "already prone to higher rates of chronic disease.”

Those advocating for health equity say the need for long-term investment in oral health is evident at all levels of government, and that until the current paucity of support for these services is rectified, the consequences for peoples’ health will be “catastrophic … “[with] few providers willing to serve them and costs that make services unattainable."

For the full story, go to "Millions are stuck in dental deserts, with no access to oral health care"