On Oral Health Bill by Today

• Unlike many medical conditions that are self-limiting (i.e., they run their course without the necessity of a medical intervention) untreated oral diseases typically become more serious, more difficult, and more expensive to treat. The consequences of not treating oral disease extend well beyond the more obvious oral health consequences such as the severe pain of a toothache (which has been characterized as one of the most excruciating types of pain), and inability to chew food, to the more serious general health consequences of severe systemic infections, psychosocial problems, impaired nutrition and weight loss, severe disfigurement and even death.
  
• Too often it is the poor, the elderly, the institutionalized, the geographically isolated, and the medically, physically, or mentally compromised who are the losers in their ability to gain access to the oral health services that many of us take for granted. Those are the very groups that stand the most to gain from health care reform. 
  
• It makes no sense to exclude coverage for specific body parts in health insurance. The mouth is no less important than a leg, arm, finger or ear or any other part of  the body.
  
• Dental care is the most prevalent unmet health care need of children in the US.  Children are more than 3 times more likely to go without needed dental care than to go without needed medical care.
    
• More than 26 million children do not have dental insurance. For every child without medical insurance, there are 2.6 without dental insurance.
  
• More than 82 million adults do not have dental insurance. For every adult 19 years or older without medical insurance, there are three without dental insurance.
  
• In 2007, only 16 state Medicaid programs offered reasonably comprehensive dental benefits to adults, 16 offered only emergency dental services, and six provided no benefits at all.
  
• Because the earliest manifestations of HIV disease often occur in the mouth, dental professionals play a critically important role in the early detection of this disease. Early detection means earlier therapeutic intervention is possible, thus extending the productive life spans of affected individuals and improving their quality of life. Early detection also reduces the opportunity for further transmission of HIV. Not covering adult dental benefits will decrease the likelihood of early detection of HIV and increase the likelihood of less productive life spans and decreased quality of life for HIV-infected individuals.
  
• Oral cancer is more common in older Americans than leukemia, melanoma, Hodgkin's disease, and cancers of the brain, liver, bone, thyroid, stomach and ovaries. Oral cancer kills more Americans every year than cervical cancer.
  
• Only about two out of every ten (21%) Americans ages 65 and older are covered by private dental insurance.  Most seniors have no dental coverage since Medicare doesn't offer a dental benefit.
  
• People with disabilities are at greater risk for oral diseases and are less likely to be treated.  One of two persons with a significant disability cannot find a professional resource to provide appropriate and necessary dental care.
  
• Oral health problems cause pain, impact our ability to eat, sleep, work or get a job, and concentrate in school.  Evidence suggests that poor oral health can complicate or is linked to diabetes; heart disease; pneumonia; stroke; and pre-term, low birth weight babies.