A shameful tale: California's dental insurance gap

I volunteered at a free, two-day dental clinic just hosted in Sacramento by California Dental Association. I did exit interviews of those who were among the first people who stood in line to get badly needed dental care.

A rotating staff conducted the interviews to get recipient feedback. The short sessions gave an up close and personal snapshot of people who came to the clinic for all types of care, from cleanings to fillings, to tooth extractions to dentures, to denture fixes, to broken teeth aid, toothaches, seemingly every dental problem in the book.

The CDA crew was big and well organized. Dentists and hygienists worked for free, as did volunteers. Sponsors donated food and equipment. All was done in a massive room at Cal Expo, the state fair grounds. Seen from a terrace above, the huge clinic floor was abuzz with energy and activity. Lines of dentists and hygienists worked on the steady stream of walk-in patients. Dental chairs were fully equipped, and plumbed with water supplied and drained via temporary rigs of PVC pipe.

Many of the attendees stood in line all night to get treatment. As they entered, a dentist determined what specific care they could receive on the visit. For some it was a teeth cleaning that they hadn’t had from a dentist in years, or ever. Others had complex problems, and because of the limitations of the clinic’s time and resources, could get only the most critical of their problems worked on.

In May, a similar CDA free clinic held in Modesto successfully served a part of the dental care deficit there.

In exit interviews I did, two things came up regularly.  Every person lacked dental insurance. And every person couldn’t afford to go to a dentist to solve a problem, much less get regular maintenance care such as cleanings and fillings. Most said that even after getting care at the clinic, they wouldn't have the money to visit a dentist in the future.

Some of the people were poor and uneducated. Some were homeless. But many were obviously educated and unemployed. Almost all were hugely grateful.

One woman, asked if she’d been welcomed and respected at the clinic, burst into tears. She was so thankful she was speechless.

A man and his young son were there because they had pitched a tent near Cal Expo the night before, the dad said. He and his son, the mother and another child, took turns in the all-night line. The dad and son were among the first treated on the clinic's opening morning.

Some people had teeth pulled and were wracked with pain. Mouths full of gauze, they could only point to their exit question answers. One older man had a whole new set of teeth – new dentures -- and proudly beamed a smile with his new look.

One woman made it clear she appreciated work she’d received. But she and several others said the line outside overnight was a scary experience. A TV crew showed up in the pre-dawn hours to cover the interest in the free clinic. That triggered a rush toward the entrance, causing fights and people to struggle to keep their places in line. The woman also suggested water could have been provided to the people in line, to ward off the effects of August heat.

The overarching problem here is glaring: If you don’t have dental insurance, you pretty much have to do without dental care. The lack of basic affordable care for cleanings and fillings, along with education on how to properly brush and floss every day, degrades anyone's dental health over time.

As a result, the masses of dental care challenged in California have to be lucky enough to hear of a free dental clinic like this that can serve only so many. Then they’re faced with standing in line, likely overnight, and for some, in less than safe conditions. All just to get long delayed relief from preventable dental problems: needed extractions, broken teeth, needed plates, cleanings and cavities that need drilling and filling.

But CDA dentists, sponsors and volunteers who donated huge amounts of time, effort, expertise, money and equipment, deserve a standing ovation for this event. They rolled up their sleeves and continued to tackle a huge problem in California.

The effort exposed another of many big problems facing this state. This one is a wide dental care gap. It’s about as wide as the gap on a set of dentures, with no front teeth.

Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit: 
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelf