DIVERSITY IN DENTISTRY
America, We Need to Invest in Dental Care for all of our Children William J. Maloney, D.D.S. Poor oral/dental care for children sets the stage for a lifetime of costly and painful dental issues and has a deleterious effect on the individual’s systemic health and overall quality of life. The oralsystemic health connection has been well-documented in the scientific literature in the past few decades. It is now known that deficient oral/dental health can set off a cascade of poor health throughout one’s life, with the resultant negative socioeconomic issues that are all too often associated with poor health. In the United States, there are a large number of state and federally funded children’s dental health programs. However, many children cannot access care for a variety of reasons. It is imperative that all children receive a high standard of dental care by eliminating barriers, such as social inequality, familial economic status, separation of dentistry and medicine, and lack of public education about the impact of good oral and dental health on the overall development of children. The United States cannot afford to provide anything less than top-quality healthcare to its children, as they are our nation’s future. This country must invest in premium dental care for youth and work to integrate pediatric medicine and dentistry in order to reduce the negative socioeconomic impact of poor oral health in later life. It is of utmost importance that we increase access to care and to that end, there must be a dramatic increase in dentists’ participation in publicly funded preventive dental services, which, in turn, would result in significant financial savings for the various government agencies.[1]
14
JANUARY 2022
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The New York State Dental Journal
A Tragic Short-term Consequence Untreated dental decay can lead to many deleterious health conditions. A tragic and well-publicized example is that of Deamonte Driver, a 12-year-old black boy living outside of Baltimore, MD. Deamonte had a badly decayed maxillary left first molar, which is one of the first permanent teeth to erupt into the oral cavity, at around 6 years of age.[2] Deamonte started complaining of a terrible headache to his mother, Alyce. Alyce had difficulty navigating the bureaucratic system, attempting to find dental care for her son. Deamonte eventually received dental and medical attention but, unfortunately, it was not in time. Deamonte died and became a horrific example of the defects in our nation’s ability to provide quality dental care to each and every one of our children. His mother’s difficulties finding a dentist to treat Deamonte included inability to find a participating Medicaid dentist and trouble completing the burdensome paperwork of the Medicaid system.[2] Deamonte developed meningitis, was hospitalized and had two brain surgeries as the infection from his tooth spread to his brain. It seems almost incomprehensible that a child living within a short distance of our nation’s capital could die of a decayed tooth because access to care for youths dependent on Medicaid is limited. The tragic example of Deamonte Driver illustrates the most severe short-term consequence of a lack of access to dental care. Throughout my career I have also witnessed many long-term consequences which are wholly unacceptable in 21st century Amer-
