Imagine that you’re 67 years old and you wake up with a severe toothache. You can’t sleep. You know you might need a root canal or something even more invasive, but you just can’t afford it. You don’t have dental insurance, and while you have Medicare, it doesn’t pay for most dental services.
This is a possible scenario for many of the 4.6 million people enrolled in Medicare in Texas, the federal program that provides health coverage for seniors and folks with long-term disabilities. It’s also a concern for millions of working poor Texans who aren’t covered by other social programs.
Since Medicare’s inception, lawmakers haven’t deemed dental care as vital as medical health care. That myth has since been dispelled.
Dental care not only relates to crowns, root canals, dentures and tooth replacement that seniors — and anyone — might need at some point in their lives. It can also prevent the risk that untreated cavities could lead to abscesses and spread disease to other vital organs. In some cases, those conditions can even be fatal. Dental care is health care, but still, Congress ignores pleas to add it to Medicare.
Source: Other voices: Texas must expand access to vital dental care / Longview News-Journal