American Dies From Toothache, Couldn't Afford Meds

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Man Dies From Toothache, Couldn't Afford Meds

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, 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. ...

" 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 land 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. " ...

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