Dentists Are Richer, Teeth Are Poorer

Recently I read an interesting article in the NY Times about the dental crisis that is affecting America. While the dental industry is booming, American's teeth are going untreated. Because of the rising cost of dental fees, which are rising much faster than inflation, there are over 100 million Americans who cannot afford dental insurance. The result? A decade of rapidly increasing untreated cavities. This pretty much reverses close to 50 years of dental health improvement.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2003 and 2004, 27% of children and 29% of adults have cavities that are untreated. This is at it's highest since the late 1980s and has significantly risen since the late 1990s. But, despite these staggering numbers, state dental boards and the American Dental Association continue to fight efforts to have dental hygienists and non-dentists provide basic dental care to those who do not have access to a dentist or dental insurance.

Most dentists will only accept cash payments and insurance plans and will not accept Medicaid. What few publicly supported dental clinics exist end up having waiting lists that can be months long. Some children are waiting over six months to have major surgery on decayed teeth, something not to be taken lightly, considering that this year two children, one from Mississippi and one from Maryland, died from infections caused by their decayed teeth.

A lack of proper dental care among nearly 100 million Americans is not just restricted to the poor. Data shows that many Americans, including those who have incomes well above the poverty line, are still without access to dental care. This is mostly due to dental fees rising much faster than inflation, along with the fact that the number of dentists in the US has remained pretty flat since 1990, even though the population has increased by 22%. Also, the average dental procedure has risen by 25% in the last 11 years. To top it all off, most dentists are working part time.

This is a problem that will remain and continue to get worse as the shortage of dentists increases, due to fewer dental schools and dentists in training. The average age of a dentist is around 50 years. This shortage will only increase as more and more of current dentists head into retirement. And unfortunately, there seems to be little action by the states and the ADA to implement plans to solve this growing crisis.

The whole article can be found here, on the New York Times website.

Jessica Espinoza
Marketing Assistant
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