Few things are more concerning than kids without access to quality medical care. That’s especially true when the kids in question have special needs. Yet at this very moment, tens of thousands of special-needs kids struggle to find basic dental care. It’s a quiet crisis in American healthcare. Private organizations are starting to realize this… Read More »
Recently, I read a heartbreaking plea on a local Facebook group. A Glenwood Springs resident (I’ll call her Mary) asked for a dentist to volunteer to pull her husband’s tooth. It had been aching for six-plus months, causing fevers, nausea, fatigue and sleeplessness. I could have (tritely) posted back, “I feel his pain.” I was… Read More »
Many of us fear going to the dentist, and that fear is made worse by the dreadful prospect that on any given visit, you could be subjected to a whirring drill boring its way through your poor, hurty teeth. But the findings of a seven-year study by Australian researchers suggest that many of us have… Read More »
In the early 2000s Terry Mitchell’s dentist retired. For a while, Mitchell, an electrician in his 50s, stopped seeking dental care altogether. But when one of his wisdom teeth began to ache, he started looking for someone new. An acquaintance recommended John Roger Lund, whose practice was a convenient 10-minute walk from Mitchell’s home, in… Read More »
Dentists Patients resort to DIY dentistry as NHS options disappear With most treatment now paid for, is this the tipping point for free health service dental care? An MP’s meet-and-greet visit to a dental practice in their constituency would usually pass without comment. But when the MP is the secretary of state for health and… Read More »
It’s no secret that medicine and dentistry have evolved an unnatural professional separation that is helpful to no one and often causes unnecessary suffering on the part of patients. But we’re in a moment—driven by our greater understanding of the links between medical and dental outcomes—where we can further integrate the two fields to better… Read More »