Though Anna Rosemond, now 33, had braces when she was young, a couple of years ago she noticed her teeth were again starting to crowd. So when she saw a Groupon deal for SmileDirectClub, she jumped on it.
“Do you want numbing gel?” the dental technician asked me as she prepared to plunge into my mouth.
It’s the issue that spurred Republican Rep. Cedric R. Hayden to follow his father, former Rep. Cedric L. Hayden, into politics, just as he had followed him into dentistry.
Dental care is among the stickiest problems in modern healthcare, according to panelists who spoke recently at the Virginia Garcia Healthcare Symposium. Problems in the dental care system are caused by a host of factors:
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Communities across the country and here in the Pacific Northwest are working to improve access to dental care by creating a new dental profession: dental therapists.
January 6, 2012 – A coalition led by Dr. Dane Smith in Coos Bay County is determined to eliminate dental disease among its children.
“I’ve heard it said that holes in people’s teeth reflect holes in their heart, and I think there’s truth to that,” said Smith, an oral surgeon in Brookings. “People who have high self-esteem and high expectations for their lives have fewer cavities.” That’s why it takes a whole community to address the issue.
