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Many residents in parts of Florida don’t get proper dental care.
This is a problem in Alachua County, even though the county has about 33 percent more dentists than the state average. The problem is only 20 percent of low-income residents received some kind of dental care in 2010. Comparatively, one-third of Floridians had some kind of dental care.
A particular aspect to be concerned with is the lack of dental care for children in the area. Even with the fluoridation and education about oral health, the problem involving getting dental care for children hasn’t improved much over past few decades.
Florida has some of the worst scores in the country regarding the access children have to dental care, according to the Pew Center on the States. This stems from the reluctance of dentists to treat Medicaid patients.
Many parents view dental care is a luxury thing, not a necessity, so they might prioritize something else over visiting the dentist. Also, many more medical visits are covered than dental visits because of the way the healthcare system is configured in the United States. This doesn’t make sense based on the fact that good oral health leads to good overall health.
In the entire country, about 35 percent of people don’t have dental insurance coverage, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office. There are about 47 percent of people with no dental coverage whatsoever compared to only 15 percent of Americans with no health insurance.
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