The President Opens Wide on Dental Care

Seeking relief from cost of dentistry? Your best bet may be dental tourism!

I do have political views, of course, but this blog is about dentistry, dental tourism and Panama as a great place to go for dental work.

So when I read that President Obama opened up about dental care at a town hall meeting in Henderson, Nevada, I was really excited.

Will there be some breaking information that will bring relief to Boomers and the others who are being strapped by expensive dental work? Depends who you read.  The President’s supporters took the information and edited it to make him look good.

His detractors cut out information, so he looked silly.  But here is the actual question Obama answered, in its entirety, from a dentist in the audience.

BTW, I do have two thoughts: 1) this is the first time anyone was ever applauded for saying you should floss. If he said brush, the crowd might have gone orgasmic, and 2) the President seemed to focus on the importance of dental care for kids…and a politician never lost a vote talking about kids. What about the rest of us?

And now the actual conversation…

Q    Well, sir, I’m reasonably familiar with the current and proposed legislature as it applies to dentistry and oral health.  And my question is, what’s your vision for how dentistry will fit into your larger framework for health care reform?

THE PRESIDENT:  Are you a dentist yourself?

Q    Yes, sir.  So if somebody has a heart attack, you better still call 9-1-1.  (Laughter.)  Just a dentist.

THE PRESIDENT:  Now, it is interesting that you raised this.  It turns out — this is serious — that dental hygiene is actually very important for keeping your heart healthy.  It turns out that heart disease can be triggered when you’ve got gum disease.  So everybody floss.  That’s my first — am I right?

You got to floss.   (Applause)

It is my hope that we can include dental care in the various proposals that we’re putting forward.  Dental and vision care are very important.  Now, I’ll tell you that some folks will say we can’t afford it.  Some states in their Medicaid program cover dental; some states don’t.

At minimum — at minimum, I think it’s very important that we’ve got dental care for our kids.  (Applause.)  Because what happens is, is that if we can keep our children’s teeth healthy, then usually that means they’ve got healthy teeth as adults.  And if not, oftentimes that actually distracts them and prevents them from learning, because both dental and eye care — a lot of kids end up being distracted.  They can’t read the blackboard, they’ve got a cavity that’s been untreated.  It’s a huge problem.

So I would like to see dental care covered.  I will tell you that some folks are going to say we can’t afford it.  At minimum, I’d like to see that our children have the care that they need.  (Applause.)

Or watch the video: