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TexasTowelie

(111,288 posts)
Sun Feb 23, 2020, 04:12 PM Feb 2020

Will Virginia get a full Medicaid dental benefit? Advocates say it could be life-altering for poor

Will Virginia get a full Medicaid dental benefit? Advocates say it could be life-altering for poor patients.


Lisa Coles had a tooth infection.

But she couldn’t afford treatment. So, for nearly a decade, she suffered through terrible toothaches, relying on heating pads and Advil to make it through the worst of the pain. Twice, she borrowed $50 from family members to visit a dentist in her home county of Goochland. But without money to pay for a procedure, the treatment was always the same: a prescription for antibiotics that Coles also struggled to afford.

Not that it mattered when she paid for the medication. The infection always came back. By the time she broke down and saw an oral surgeon — one who agreed to let her set up a payment plan — the infection had spread. She had eight teeth extracted when she was still in her 30s.

“One tooth was so bad that they had to take some of the bone out,” said Coles, now 50. “It was awful. I never want to go through that again.”

It’s the type of situation that makes dental health advocates cringe: a simple problem that spirals into a major medical issue. But it’s a concern for the more than 670,000 adults enrolled in Virginia’s Medicaid program, which doesn’t cover basic dental care.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2020/02/21/will-virginia-will-get-a-full-medicaid-dental-benefit-advocates-say-it-could-be-life-altering-for-poor-patients/
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