In Kentucky’s Teeth, Toll of Poverty and Neglect
By IAN URBINA
New York Times
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — In the 18 years he has been visiting nursing homes, seeing patients in his private practice and, more recently, driving his mobile dental clinic through Appalachian hills and hollows, Dr. Edwin E. Smith has seen the extremes of neglect.
He has seen the shame of a 14-year-old girl who would not lift her head because she had lost most of her teeth from malnutrition, and the do-it-yourself pride of an elderly mountain man who, unable to afford a dentist, pulled his own infected teeth with a pair of pliers and a swig of peroxide.
He has seen the brutal result of angry husbands hitting their wives and the end game of pill-poppers who crack healthy teeth, one by one, to get dentists to prescribe pain medications.
But mostly he has seen everyday people who are too busy putting food on the table to worry about oral hygiene. Many of them savor their sweets, drink well water without fluoride and long ago started ruining their teeth by chewing tobacco and smoking.
Dr. Smith has a rare window on a state with the highest proportion of adults under 65 without teeth, where about half the population does not have dental insurance. He struggles to counter the effects of the drastic shortage of dentists in rural areas and oral hygiene habits that have been slow to change.
(Continued here.)
New York Times
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — In the 18 years he has been visiting nursing homes, seeing patients in his private practice and, more recently, driving his mobile dental clinic through Appalachian hills and hollows, Dr. Edwin E. Smith has seen the extremes of neglect.
He has seen the shame of a 14-year-old girl who would not lift her head because she had lost most of her teeth from malnutrition, and the do-it-yourself pride of an elderly mountain man who, unable to afford a dentist, pulled his own infected teeth with a pair of pliers and a swig of peroxide.
He has seen the brutal result of angry husbands hitting their wives and the end game of pill-poppers who crack healthy teeth, one by one, to get dentists to prescribe pain medications.
But mostly he has seen everyday people who are too busy putting food on the table to worry about oral hygiene. Many of them savor their sweets, drink well water without fluoride and long ago started ruining their teeth by chewing tobacco and smoking.
Dr. Smith has a rare window on a state with the highest proportion of adults under 65 without teeth, where about half the population does not have dental insurance. He struggles to counter the effects of the drastic shortage of dentists in rural areas and oral hygiene habits that have been slow to change.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
A recent study reveals pre-school children's tooth decay rates doubled
after fluoridation became Kentucky law.
In 1987, 28% of Kentucky preschoolers developed cavities. That number
increased to 47% in 2001, according to the July/August 2003 journal,
"Pediatric Dentistry."(1)
Over 96% of Kentucky water systems add fluoride since a 1977 Kentucky
law compelled water suppliers serving over 1,500 individuals to
fluoridate, aimed to reduce tooth decay by up to 60%(2)(3). Fluoride
supplements are prescribed to children without fluoridated water(3).
But cavities didn't decline at all. In fact, 57% of Kentucky third- and
sixth-graders also developed tooth decay.
"...untreated decay and caries experience have increased since the
state's 1987 survey. The state's levels also appear to be much worse
than national levels for these same indices," concludes authors
Hardison et al., summarizing "The 2001 Kentucky Children's Oral Health
Survey..."
It turns out, these children need dentists more than fluoride.
Forty-three percent of preschoolers suffered with festering teeth.
"There are a lot of places, Appalachia being one, where kids do not
always get the dental care that they need," said Jim Cecil,
administrator of Oral Health Programs for the Kentucky Department of
Public Health in an AP wire story(4). "Oral disease is reaching a
crisis level for children across the country and here in Kentucky," he
said.
A Kentucky dentist "shocked by a dramatic increase in the dental decay
rate" found poor diet to be the culprit(5).
Besides water company expenses for fluoridation equipment, chemicals,
housing, etc, surveillance, alone, cost Kentucky $350,000 yearly(2).
Silicofluorides, used by over 91% of U.S. fluoridating communities are
linked to children's higher blood-lead levels which, in turn, is linked
to higher rates of tooth decay.(8)
Fluoride at doses slightly above dentists' recommendations can also
cause cavities, according to Burt, Eklund, et al, in the dental
textbook, "Dentist, Dental Practice, and the Community." (9)
Cavity crises occur in many fluoridated cities:
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof2/_pgg5.php3
References
http://groups.google.com/group/Fluoridation-News-Releases/browse_thread/thread/e70b0d4fe2bbfd33/87cbed83b58babd8?lnk=gst&q=kentucky#87cbed83b58babd8
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