Deadly infection

I saw a patient yesterday that was admitted to the hospital for facial swelling through the emergency room, after his expensive ride through the ER he had a CT scan done and a consultation with a plastic surgeon. He eventually came to our clinic still hooked up to an IV and was carted in on a wheelchair. I took radiographs on my patient and determined that he needed about eight teeth extracted due to cavities, abcesses, fractured teeth and so on. I proceeded to tell him all of the dangers of the infection spreading to his brain or heart and killing him, along with an extended stay in the hospital if he were to keep his teeth. He then proceeded to tell me that he wants to keep his teeth... Wait a minute here, I had just told him that this infection might kill him and he said he still wants to keep his teeth. He wants to keep his teeth because they are the foundation teeth for his partial denture. His denture clips into those teeth and without them he will need a new partial fabricated.

So here is a patient taking a wild ride through the hospital for a week, gathering tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills which will be paid for by the government (tax payers dollars) because he doesn't want to spend 1000 dollars on a new set of dentures. From my point of view that doesn't make much sense. It did to him though, after all his pocketbook is the only one that matters to him. I will probably pay more for his hospital stay than he ever will. I let him leave the clinic with all of his infected teeth and sent him up to his room for another IV meal of antibiotics.

Eventually his physician convinced him that removing the source of the infection was the best way to take care of his current condition and he returned to my clinic today to have eight of his teeth removed. What will come of his partial denture? who knows, hawaii medicaid quit paying for adult dental benefits a few months ago. I guess the government decided that dental coverage is not important, after all people can still be alive without teeth.

Today is also "Furlough friday" were the government sent all of their employees home for a day to save money. Even schools shut down for a day today. While dental coverage is being cut along with government employee work days, our president is proposing better health coverage and year around school for kids. It seems like a difficult thing to bring about.