Dental gap wide and getting wider
Posted May 27, 2022 07:05:19 PM.
It's no secret dental care isn't cheap, especially if you don't have coverage.
Experts though suggest so many people are avoiding the dentist because of the price tag attached to each visit it may actually be costing more, later.
The Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation issued a report last year with data detailing the scope of the dental gap.
It found in 2018, 138,000 Waterloo Region residents did not have dental insurance and more than 100,000 had avoided going to the dentist in the last year because of the cost.
Further, another 54,000 residents said they would only go to the dentist for emergency care while 46,000 reported living with daily dental pain.
“This huge gap in our healthcare system is only growing as Baby Boomers become seniors and more people in the gig economy work without dental benefits, many of those folks are low-wage workers who are providing essential services,” said Doug Rankin, a community health worker with the Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre.
Rankin also says the cost for avoiding the dentist may in fact be higher for society than ensuring preventative oral care is affordable and accessible.
“Every nine minutes someone goes to a hospital emergency room with dental pain or infection, every three minutes someone goes to a doctor's office with dental problems,” Rankin said, citing numbers from the Ontario Ministry of Health. “Those problems aren't really resolved at ER or at a doctor's office, quite often people are prescribed antibiotics or medication for pain.”
“This comes at a cost of about $38 million annually to our healthcare system.”
Dentist Michelle Broydell is also with the KDCHC and works with people with low-income, she says by the time they do get to her the problems and the price tag are compounded.
“It's extreme really, I mean medical histories can take up to 2.5 hours to do,” she said. “It's very different from the average person that you would see in a regular dental office.”
“These people are coming and getting multiple extractions done, they're getting root canals done, they're getting multiple crowns done, they're getting dentures done, the level and complexity of care that has to be provided is extreme.”
The province does, meantime, offer some programs which provide coverage for youth and seniors but there isn't much support in between.
“The real gap for people living on low-income or working on low-income is that there is no program for people aged 19-64,” said Rankin, once again referencing the large number of people who regularly avoid dental check-ups and procedures because of their cost.
“That's where those folks are and that's where we need a pretty significant change in public policy.”
