Helping Deamonte Driver keep his smile intact would have cost around $300 starting with $50 to seal his first teeth. Fighting to save the 12-year-old after tooth decay had spread through the roots of his teeth and into his brain cost more than $200,000 ? and eventually his life.
“Deamonte Driver was poor and homeless, and he never made it into the dental chair,” said Baltimore Rep. Elijah Cummings. “Our children didn?t ask to come here. We need to help them the best we can.”
On the anniversary of the homeless Prince George?s County boy?s death, Cummings announced plans to seek greater dental health training, federal funding for states that improve dental health services, a tax credit and better reimbursement for dentists who treat low income patients as well as increased reporting requirements on children?s acces to dental care state by state.
Some of those provisions aimed at getting children access to dental care were vetoed along with the State Children?s Health Insurance Program, Cummings said. Now he is working to protect $16 million in Maryland money for dental care improvement.
The money would increase dentists? reimbursement so they won?t turn down Medicaid-insured families, and $2 million will help improve cross-training so pediatricians can offer basic treatment, spot cavities and refer children to dental care.
Unfortunately pediatric dentistry is often overlooked, said Dentist Norman Tinanoff, chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Maryland Dental School. Maryland has 500,000 children on Medicaid, one-third of whom have untreated cavities.
Spending more money on prevention just makes good sense, he said. A fluoride varnish treatment costs about $50 to protect the youngest teeth of toddlers.
Getting that child into an operating room when their tiny teeth go bad costs $6,000, he said. “These children are pre-cooperative ? they either have to be sedated, or if they have extensive work, we need to treat it in the operating room.”
Dr. Allen Finkelstein, chief dental officer for United Health Care saw the sense in providing extra money to pediatricians who refer children for dental treatment as soon as they begin cutting teeth.
“Pediatricians can do the fluoride varnish, and they get an additional payment when the child gets to the dentist,” hesaid.
