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Mans dies from toothache. 
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Man Dies From Toothache, Couldn't Afford Meds
By CARRIE GANN, ABC News Medical Unit
Sept. 2, 2011
A 24-year-old Cincinnati father died from a tooth infection this week because he couldn't afford his medication, offering a sobering reminder of the importance of oral health and the number of people without access to dental or health care.

According to NBC affiliate WLWT, Kyle Willis' wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. When dentists told him it needed to be pulled, he decided to forgo the procedure, because he was unemployed and had no health insurance.

When his face started swelling and his head began to ache, Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medications. Willis couldn't afford both, so he chose the pain medications.

The tooth infection spread, causing his brain to swell. He died Tuesday.

Calls to Willis' family were not immediately returned. University Hospital in Cincinnati, where Willis was admitted, did not comment, citing federal privacy laws.

"People don't realize that dental disease can cause serious illness," said Dr. Irvin Silverstein, a dentist at the University of California at San Diego. "The problems are not just cosmetic. Many people die from dental disease."

Willis' story is not unique. In 2007, 12-year-old Deamonte Driver also died when a tooth infection spread to his brain. The Maryland boy underwent two operations and six weeks of hospital care, totaling $250,000. Doctors said a routine $80 tooth extraction could have saved his life. His family was uninsured and had recently lost its Medicaid benefits, keeping Deamonte from having dental surgery.

"When people are unemployed or don't have insurance, where do they go? What do they do?" Silverstein said. "People end up dying, and these are the most treatable, preventable diseases in the world."

Getting access to dental care is particularly tough for low-income adults and children, and it's getting tougher as the economy worsens. In April, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 33 percent of people surveyed skipped dental care or dental checkups because they couldn't afford them. A 2003 report by the U.S. Surgeon General found that 108 million Americans had no dental insurance, nearly 2.5 times the number who had no health insurance.

Trips to the dentist aren't the only expenses hard-up Americans are skipping. An August report by the Commonwealth Fund found that 72 percent of people who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs said they skipped needed health care or did not fill prescriptions because of cost.

"People want to believe there's a safety net that catches all of these people, and there isn't," said Dr. Glenn Stream, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He noted that it is often young men who are the most likely to lack health coverage.

Dr. Jim Jirjis, director of general internal medicine at Vanderbilt University, said people, like Willis, without access to care often die of conditions that were much more common decades ago.

"He [Willis] might as well have been living in 1927," Jirjis said. "All of the advances we've made in medicine today and are proud of, for people who don't have coverage, you might as well never have developed those."

There are a number of free dental clinics in operation around the country, where dentists volunteer to provide care to those without health insurance. But even if Willis had access to a free dental clinic, Stream said he still may not have been able to get the care he needed for his infection. "The wait is often months at these clinics, and this young man died within two weeks of his problem," Stream said.

Silverstein operates three free dental clinics in the San Diego area. "We're overwhelmed right now," he said. "We can't take any new patients."


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/insurance-24-year-dies-toothache/story?id=14438171

Reason to be thankful for the NHS #10,885.

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Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:47 pm
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If you can find a dentist that accepts NHS patients.

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Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:14 pm
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I've just gone private at my dentist as they stopped taking on just graduated dentists and so stopped the nhs patients. Although any prescriptions for antibiotics etc would be covered by the nhs.


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Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:31 pm
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one could say only in the good old USA
but sadly the same is happening here ...

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Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:01 pm
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Amnesia10 wrote:
If you can find a dentist that accepts NHS patients.

There are tons in Cardiff. In Wales there's no charge for the Under 25s, which is handy. ;)

Also, in the UK unemployed people (claiming JSA etc) are entitled to help with their dental and prescription costs through the HC2 certificate scheme.

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Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:44 pm
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Linux_User wrote:
Amnesia10 wrote:
If you can find a dentist that accepts NHS patients.

There are tons in Cardiff. ;)

Also, in this country unemployed people are entitled to help with their dental and prescription costs through the HC2 certificate scheme.


what if you are working at an honest living and not entitled to claim for any benefits and over the age of 25 ? ...

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Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:46 pm
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MrStevenRogers wrote:
Linux_User wrote:
Amnesia10 wrote:
If you can find a dentist that accepts NHS patients.

There are tons in Cardiff. ;)

Also, in this country unemployed people are entitled to help with their dental and prescription costs through the HC2 certificate scheme.


what if you are working at an honest living and not entitled to claim for any benefits and over the age of 25 ? ...

Then you pay the standard NHS rates. Unless you're a private patient, then God help you. ;)

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Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:03 pm
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ho hum ...

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Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:22 pm
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What happened to Obamacare? :?

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Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:05 am
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big_D wrote:
What happened to Obamacare? :?

Hasn't taken effect yet. All the states have to create insurance exchanges first and then enroll people into the schemes on offer, which even then won't include a government backed insurer.

On top of that, this poor idiot (sorry, but choosing pain killers instead of antibiotics is a bit of a darwin award feat) lived in Ohio, a state which might very well vote to amend its constitution in November to prevent OC ever taking effect there
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/ ... 0V20110812


Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:29 am
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This toothache thing was happening to my other half the other week. Some background before the tory kicks off - she has jaw problems. It developed a click when she was eating many years ago, and at times it was painful. So she was referred to the hospital who identified that it was dislocating and gave her a bite guard to wear when she sleeps. At times, it comes back, but on the whole the pain, discomfort and clicking has gone.

A couple of weeks ago, her jaw started hurting. She went to the doctor, who suggested pain killers and sent her on her way. By the Saturday, though, it had got a whole lot worse, and the pain was pretty extreme, so I ran her round to casualty and she got some serious painkillers. They thought it was some form of neuralgia, and told her to get her GP to refer her. So on the Monday, she saw a GP, who referred her to the hospital, AND suggested a precautionary trip to a dentist to make sure that there was nothing else going on. So an emergency delta appointment was set up. We were on our way for a few days away, so we packed the car, and went via the dentist. I was told to go to a cafe close by while she was checked, which I did.

About 40 minutes later she turned up - she had a tooth pulled out. The dentist had found one that was infected and yanked it (yes, there was an option of root canal work, but she chose the extraction - quicker, less traumatic).

It’s interesting that the whole nerve/jaw problem became a red herring - a medical history like that could cloud diagnosis. What my other half was saying was that the whole jaw on the side of her face hurt - not just an sea round the tooth. I guess if a nerve is overloaded, the whole thing will fire.

What is of concern to me is that the first doctor she saw didn’t suggest going to a dentist as a precaution. However, it has all been sorted out. Pain has gone, and hospital appointment with the nerve specialists isn’t necessary.

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Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:39 am
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ShockWaffle wrote:
big_D wrote:
What happened to Obamacare? :?

Hasn't taken effect yet. All the states have to create insurance exchanges first and then enroll people into the schemes on offer, which even then won't include a government backed insurer.

On top of that, this poor idiot (sorry, but choosing pain killers instead of antibiotics is a bit of a darwin award feat) lived in Ohio, a state which might very well vote to amend its constitution in November to prevent OC ever taking effect there
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/ ... 0V20110812

Yes but he could not afford to see a doctor to get antibiotics.

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Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:00 am
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Amnesia10 wrote:
ShockWaffle wrote:
big_D wrote:
What happened to Obamacare? :?

Hasn't taken effect yet. All the states have to create insurance exchanges first and then enroll people into the schemes on offer, which even then won't include a government backed insurer.

On top of that, this poor idiot (sorry, but choosing pain killers instead of antibiotics is a bit of a darwin award feat) lived in Ohio, a state which might very well vote to amend its constitution in November to prevent OC ever taking effect there
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/ ... 0V20110812

Yes but he could not afford to see a doctor to get antibiotics.

He had a prescription for antibiotics as well but chose the painkillers.

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Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:18 am
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bobbdobbs wrote:
He had a prescription for antibiotics as well but chose the painkillers.


And how much were the antibiotics over the painkillers?

My guess, albeit one based on hearsay and speculation, is the guy couldn't actually afford the antibiotics. Under the NHS, at present, he could have got the required treatment for just under £8. In the US, without the money to buy the drugs, he couldn't.

*shrug*

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Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:40 am
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HeatherKay wrote:
bobbdobbs wrote:
He had a prescription for antibiotics as well but chose the painkillers.


And how much were the antibiotics over the painkillers?

My guess, albeit one based on hearsay and speculation, is the guy couldn't actually afford the antibiotics. Under the NHS, at present, he could have got the required treatment for just under £8. In the US, without the money to buy the drugs, he couldn't.

*shrug*

Actually, as he was unemployed and thus on a low income (and possibly would have been claiming JSA), he would have gotten it for free through the HC2 scheme.

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