Access to dental care needed long before 2025, Niagara coalition says

Cost and a lack of health insurance are the two biggest barriers facing many adults in Niagara seeking dental health care, a survey conducted by Niagara Dental Health Coalition recently found.

“Local health and social service agencies have told us anecdotally that they frequently encounter people across Niagara who face challenges accessing dental care,” Lori Kleinsmith, chair of the dental health coalition, says in a release.

“The survey findings quantify what we have been hearing and allow us to tell a more complete picture of the ways lack of dental care access is impacting the lives of numerous Niagara residents.”

Kleinsmith says the survey received 1,334 responses from Niagara residents aged 18 and over from across all 12 lowertier municipalities.

The survey showed 57 per cent respondents indicated that they had no access to workplace or publicly-funded dental care benefits and could not afford to buy private insurance. Sixty-three per cent reported their household family income at less than $30,000 annually.

Thirty-one per cent of survey respondents reported that they had not visited a dentist in three or more years.

When faced with a dental emergency, more than one in four respondents turned to their family doctor, a walk-in clinic or the hospital emergency room, only to receive painkillers or antibiotics and no treatment of the underlying dental problem.

Eleven per cent of respondents reported various ways they treated a dental emergency on their own, including pulling out their own tooth and filing down a broken tooth with a nail file.

The lack of access to dental care clearly affects the health of many survey respondents, says Kleinsmith.

The survey shows 692 people reported regular tooth pain, while 565 had loose or missing teeth and 250 had abscesses over the past year. The release says health issues impact other areas of life, with hundreds of respondents indicating they faced problems with eating, low self-esteem and sleeping.

“Imagine your worst toothache ever. Then imagine you had to contemplate living with that for the rest of your life. My pain at least sometimes comes and goes, but I don’t know how much longer before it gets worse. This situation is inhumane,” one respondent says in the survey.

SAays Kleinsmith, “The current provincial government has said that it plans to expand access to dental benefits to adults and seniors on low incomes by 2025.

“However, for those who are suffering daily with tooth pain and eating problems, eight more years without access to dental care is interminable.”

She says the dental health coalition encourages the public to let elected officials know that expanding access to publiclyfunded access dental care for low income adults and seniors is an issue they want addressed now, not in eight years.

Niagara employers can also play a role by providing dental benefits to their workers, she adds.

See the coalition’s website at http://niagaradentalhealthcoalition.weebly.com for more survey results and a link to an e-petition.