Tag: Medicaid dental

Is the United States facing a dentist shortage?

Marc
Dental Insurance

A dentist shortage has been identified in the United States – particularly in areas where there are higher levels of poverty – and it is now being predicted that this problem will only increase by 2014 when the Affordable Care Act goes into full force. Thousands of Americans are visiting emergency rooms every day to obtain treatments for dental problems that are considered to be entirely preventable. For example, in 2009, there were over 830,000 E.R. visits for just this type of problem, such as tooth abscesses that make it…

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Dental study shows unfair treatment towards patients with Medicaid

H. Cutner

A study coming from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that children covered under public health insurance policies are far less likely to receive quality dental care. Dentists, the study finds, are more willing to treat children with coverage from private insurance companies. The study was led by Joanna Bisgaier, a PhD student at the university, and was published online yesterday in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Researchers prepared 6 women for the study, each trained to be the mother of a young boy that had…

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