Dental Care Should Be Part of Universal Healthcare

[DebJ]

62. Due to genetics, I lost all my teeth and needed full dentures by the age of 50.

I lost the teeth from the inside out; xrays showed vast amounts of empty space where tooth should
have been on the inside. I drank tons of milk; brushed/flossed, all my life, to no avail. Dentist said
there was nothing that could be done, just some people inherit this (and yes this happened to my Mom
and her sisters also).

The total cost for extracting everyone of my teeth plus TEMPORARY dentures was $5000. Our dental insurance
covered a max of $750 per year, with tons of ifs, ands/butts exemptions and deductibles for each procedure. I had it done in two different years, so $1500 was paid through insurance, but the rest came out of our wallets.

That was some years ago, like 6, and I still have only temporary dentures, which totally suck, can't eat much of anything at all, won't cut/tear meat, etc...and don't know if I'll ever be able to afford 'real' dentures that might work better.