From the Calgary Herald (April 8, 2009):
Getting any kind of care for their mouths and teeth is “a huge issue” for many people, while a number of groups and agencies are trying to fill what one worker calls “a huge gap out there. Kathy Sperling teaches dental hygiene at the University of Alberta, and also spends part of her week at Edmonton’s inner-city Boyle McCauley dental centre, and knows the gaps in the systems.
Alberta offers free dental care to children up to age 18 in limited income families (for example, single parent, one child, family income under $24,397). That covers the basics: dental exams, teeth cleaning, X-rays, fillings and extractions. For the rest of us, cost can be a formidable obstacle.
Sperling says probably the worst off is the working poor person, someone with few or no benefits, and whose income gets them just above the poverty line, leaving them ineligible for support programs. They are “really marginalized,” said Sperling.
Joan Leakey, who also teaches in the U of A’s dental hygiene program, agrees that access to care is an issue. “We really need dental care to be like health care, that anybody can have access to it. Everybody has to have medicare or Blue Cross. Dental care should be included in that. That’s a basic health need. The mouth is the portal of entry. There are so many systemic links through the mouth. If your mouth isn’t healthy, we are now finding people can have all sorts of things: heart problems due to the bacteria in the mouth, liver and kidney problems.”
So having someone scope out your mouth is important and not only for your teeth and gums — it can reveal a lot about your overall health. “We definitely know now there’s a link to the heart and the (mouth) bacteria and there’s some people who need premedication to their dental treatment because of that. There seem to be oral manifestations of different diseases. If you’re diabetic, your tissue doesn’t heal as quickly.”
Vascular diseases are related to the health problems that are believed to viagra without prescription djpaulkom.tv be connected with the snoring are daytime dysfunction and heart illness. You can deal with the problem of smaller package use this link best price on levitra with appropriate and safe methods. Each man has this cGMP protein which helps in erection by continuing everything ordinary. generic viagra sample Men above 18 & female are not asked sildenafil bulk to practice the dose again and again in a day and taking overdose of this medicine can be dangerous for the health plus not all that glitters is gold that is not all of them fulfil what they say. And it can go beyond your own health, Leakey added. “There are more studies being done on women who have periodontal disease and pre-term, low birth-weight babies.”
So where can you go if access and cost are a problem? There are a number of places to try. The dental clinic at the Boyle McCauley Health Centre, 10628 96th St., offers a full range of services, with a sliding scale of fees based on each client’s income. Discounts can go as high as 75 per cent. It relies largely on volunteers and donations. The clinic’s service area includes the neighbourhoods of Boyle Street, McCauley and Norwood. Visits are by appointment, but walk-ins may also be accommodated. Phone: (780) 421-7333.
Red Deer has an innovative dental program that started because of a real need in the community. Housed in the north-side Johnstone Crossing Community Health Centre, Dental Outreach of Red Deer is a collaboration between Alberta Health Services and the Central Alberta Dental Society.
Barb Olsen, Central health region director of health promotion and prevention, said the idea grew out of a conference talk on dental disease in childhood and the realization that kids were being referred by clinics across the region to dentists, but nothing was happening. Those kids often simply fell through the cracks, badly in need of care but lacking the means to get it — no money, no insurance coverage.
The clinic started small, opening last April, and has seen 22 clients. Target schools were contacted and they referred select kids aged five to 18 fitting the criteria of having urgent need of care and no other access to it. The clinics run every second Saturday, staffed by volunteers from a pool of 17 local dentists and 19 assistants.
“It has been very well-received, and we hope to grow it,” added Olsen. Information in the clinic is going out to all the region’s schools and to immigrant and social services agencies.
