Duh! of the week....
From 2001 to 2008, emergency room visits for routine dental conditions -- such as cavities, tooth pain and gingivitis -- increased by 41 percent in the United States, while emergency room visits for all conditions rose by only 13 percent, the study said.
This is partly due to the lack of dental coverage under Medicaid in some areas, the shortfall of dental providers in rural communities and the dearth of dentists in urban areas willing to take on new Medicaid patients.
"Past research has shown that many dentists do not accept Medicaid," said study co-author Kathryn Fingar, a researcher at Truven Health Analytics in Sacramento. "Therefore people with Medicaid may find it difficult to get dental care in an office-based setting, even if they have dental insurance and even if there is an adequate supply of dentists in their community. In these instances, patients may need to use emergency rooms for dental problems, which generally can do little for patients seeking dental care except prescribe pain medications and antibiotics."
In urban areas, expanded Medicaid dental coverage did not appear to reduce dental emergency room visits despite an adequate supply of dentists. These findings suggest that even in states whose Medicaid programs offer expanded dental coverage, patients may have difficulty locating dentists who accept Medicaid. The rate of dentists who accept Medicaid has been reported to be as low as 11 percent in Missouri, 15 percent in Florida and 20 percent in New York.