290
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

For months, Carlton Clemons endured crippling pain from a rotting wisdom tooth. He couldn’t sleep, barely ate and relied on painkillers to get by.

The 67-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, could not afford to see a dentist on the $1,300-a-month his family gets in Social Security and disability payments. So he waited for the state to roll out a program this year that offers dental care to the more than 650,000 Medicaid recipients like him who are 21 and older. Tennessee is spending about $75 million annually on the program.

“Man, I thought I had made it to heaven because the pain was over,” he said after the tooth was pulled in July at the Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry. “When they did pull it out, I was so happy. I was so glad. Everything just changed after that.”

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[-] Xylinna@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago

Dental care should be included with medical. It's ridiculous that it isn't.

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

What are you talking about, everyone knows the eyes and the mouth are completely separate entities from the rest of your self.

[-] Hoomod@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Teeth are apparently considered luxury bones

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Eyes are luxury organs.

[-] Kalkaline@leminal.space 14 points 1 year ago

I don't even have to look to know that Texas and Florida are not doing it.

[-] Buffaloaf@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Florida will probably ban all dental care because it's woke.

[-] pythonoob@programming.dev 15 points 1 year ago

Teeth are inherently trans because of the nature of baby teeth turning into adult teeth. We can't have any of that shit. Can you believe that minors are electing to have their wisdom teeth (given by God) pulled?! How can we allow this kind of heathen behavior.

[-] Maeve@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

We should have universal healthcare at no more cost to the patient. We paid for it so give it to us. No more corporate/billionaire welfare.

[-] Potato_in_my_anus@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

All these people who need healthcare but keep complaining that FREE is socialism 🙄

[-] TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

While in college, my wife worked a summer in a local factory. She said what stood out the most was that everyone except the managers had bad teeth.

And Teeth are part of our body. Why it is not part of every health insurance plan is bizarre.

this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
290 points (99.7% liked)

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