The number of people in Florida going to the ER for oral care has increased by around 40 percent in some areas. This has cost the state around $89 million.
Add toothaches and nasty oral infections to the long list of ailments increasingly driving under-insured patients to the state’s emergency departments.
A new Florida Public Health Institute study counted more than 115,000 emergency-room dental patients last year, a 9 percent increase from 2008, largely patients getting stopgap pain and oral infection treatment.
In Lee and Collier counties, the number of dental-related ER visits grew from 3,369 patients in 2008 to 4,655 patients in 2010, almost a 40 percent jump.
The total cost for this care last year in Florida was almost $89 million, about $3.5 million of which was in Lee and Collier, according to the study. Hospitals and Medicaid, taxpayer-supported health insurance for low-income residents, shouldered most of the expense.
The study’s authors believe patients are turning to hospitals because they cannot afford dentists or find providers willing to accept their low-reimbursing Medicaid.
“Most of these folks probably do not have a dental home or the resources to obtain dental care,” said Dr. Claude Earl Fox, the institute’s executive director.
A 2010 News-Press investigation found… continue reading
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