Dental Trouble ; No Insurance?

It is typical for a single mother in the U.S of two not to be able to afford dental insurance for her children - because a single tooth can cost a low-income parent a monthly paycheck.

In fact thousands of low-income parents can't afford to have dental care either for themselves or for their children. Another case like this was found last spring with Delma Hernandez and her two sons. When one of her sons told her that his tooth hurt, she tried giving him Tylenol, rubbing Orajel on his tooth, and even apologizing for the fact that she couldn't afford a dentist.

No dental care can mutate into permanent dental disease. Recently, in Dallas:

A mother had to wait through her children's tooth-aches, and return only when she had a job. When she was employed, she took her child to the dentist, and he needed five fillings and three teeth removed.

A toddler with a mouthful of cavities couldn't be treated because his local clinic wasn't equipped to treat him. He also couldn't be taken into another hospital because his mother couldn't afford to, without a car.

Two low-income parents had to take their child to a low-cost clinic nine times for nine untreated teeth, because they could only afford to treat one tooth at a time.

This is probably happened because the state's Children's Health Insurance Program cut dental benefits in 2003. Dental insurance, Medicaid, hasn't been doing their job either considering the fact that children are left hunting for pediatric dentists.

According to recent evaluations, nearly 152,000 medically uninsured children live in Dallas, and a lot of them, can't afford to have dental care. Families that do qualify for Medicaid, have trouble finding care. Perhaps part of the problem is that many pediatric dentists accept Medicaid patients. Some dentists who do accept Medicaid, such as Dr. Morgan, have waiting lists as long as nine months. Children are often denied dental care, and single parents, struggling to make an income, can't afford to take them.