The Perils of Socialized Medicine: Do-It-Yourself Dentistry?
October 25th, 2007Health care reform is a perennial hot topic with US Presidential hopefuls, but Americans’ lack of dental coverage is even more pervasive: for each American citizen without health insurance, three lack dental insurance. Still, even in countries with universal healthcare, proper dental care is far from guaranteed. A recent survey of patients of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) found widespread dissatisfaction in the system: long waits for treatment, long travel distances, low quality of care, and high treatment costs were the most frequently cited complaints.
Although a new contract for NHS dentists was introduced only eighteen months ago, the new system has thus far failed to increase availability of dental care. More than 1500 dentists opted to go into private practice rather than sign the new agreement, and some patients decided the risks of self-dentistry outweighed whatever impositions the NHS placed upon them: one in 20 respondents had resorted to performing dentistry on themselves, gluing loose crowns back in place and even pulling their own teeth with pliers.
Whether universal healthcare in the US becomes more than just a talking point in the near future remains to be seen, but it helps to remember that every system has its pitfalls.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:57 am
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October 26th, 2007 at 3:02 am
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October 26th, 2007 at 3:05 am
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