December 29, 2022
By: Trimmel Gomes
Florida leads the nation in the number of
individuals, nearly 6 million, who are living in Dental Health Professional
Shortage Areas.
Sixty-six of Florida's 67
counties lack the amount of professionals needed to provide
care, according to U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration data. Advocates
say the shortage is of crisis proportions leading to significant impacts on
general health as they say poor oral health is linked to impaired school
learning, heart disease and even death.
Dr. Frank Catalanotto, founder of Floridians for Dental Access, said part of
the problem is the significant cost of dental care. He noted in Florida and
nationally, thousands of people with toothaches take their problems to an
emergency room.
"The physicians in the emergency rooms aren't prepared to deal with this,
so the patient gets antibiotics and pain medication and then told to see a
dentist tomorrow," Catalanotto pointed out. "Well, if they couldn't
afford a dentist today, they are not going to afford one tomorrow."
Catalanotto reported of the 150,000 who went to the emergency room in 2019,
4,000 of them were admitted to the hospital because the dental infections were
life-threatening. As of 2020 and 2021, there were 12,264
dentists in Florida, according to the state Department of
Health, and not all of them take Medicaid, which provides coverage for
low-income individuals.
Most dentists in Florida are concentrated in large urban counties, with very
few dentists in many rural counties. Three counties -- Dixie, Glades and
Lafayette -- have no dentists. State health data show three other counties --
Union, Gilchrist and Franklin -- each had just one.
Catalanotto noted more research is connecting the dots on how this disparity is
impacting the health of school children and adults.
"If you're not learning, you're not going to get an education,"
Catalanotto emphasized. "And for adults it's way more serious because
there is now very good strong scientific literature about the relationship, for
example, between gum disease, periodontal disease and diabetes."
At last count in Florida, Catalanotto said fewer than one in five dentists,
just 18%, participated in Medicaid in 2016. He added the scary part of the
crisis to him is how little the public knows about how oral health impacts
their everyday health so, his group's focus is to spread awareness and
eventually land on concrete solutions which get to the root of the problems.
Content for this Post is provided by Florida News
Connection, a Bureau of Public News Service.
Public News Service is a member of the The Trust Project.
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