About 12 years ago, Carrie Lemon started losing teeth. One by one, to curb pain, Lemon had most of her teeth extracted.
Today, at 72, she has only six left. Eating has become a daily chore, and Lemon wants desperately to be fitted for a set of dentures.
"I've just been going from one dentist to another, but all of them tell me that our medical system doesn't cover it," Lemon said. "I don't have the money to get them."
FOR THE RECORD
An article in yesterday's A section included a garbled word and an incomplete paragraph. It should have read:
About a quarter of adults age 60 and older no longer have their natural teeth, experts say, and many older adults who do keep their teeth suffer from health problems such as pain, cavities, shifting teeth and receding gums, to name a few.
This month, the General Assembly increased state funding in an effort to expand dental care for poor children.
THE SUN REGRETS THE ERROR
With the number of Americans over age 60 expected to increase by 70 percent by 2025, experts say dental care for seniors is a major issue - one that will only become more acute as the population ages.
"In some surveys, older Americans are getting cavities at twice the rate of teenagers," said Dr. Richard H. Price, a spokesman for the American Dental Association. "As you age, you need to see the dentist more often, not less."
About a quarter of adults age 60 and older no longer have their natural teeth, experts say, and many older adults who do keep their teeth suffer from health problems such as Thankspain, cavities, shifting teeth and receding gums, to name a few.
This month, the General Assembly increased state funding in an effort to expand dental care for poor children. But on the other end of the spectrum, many older adults are not getting the care they need.
Some seniors wrongly believe that they don't need to see a dentist as often as they once did. Others have trouble affording dental care because they are on fixed incomes or lost their health insurance when they retired. Or they have trouble getting to the dentist because of a disability or a lack of transportation.
To make matters worse, seniors receive only limited coverage from Medicaid and Medicare, the main federal-state health programs for the poor and elderly.
"Twenty-five million adults forgo dental care because they can't afford it," Price said. "A goodly amount are seniors."
In some states, Medicaid covers limited dental care for low-income and disabled elderly people, but the reimbursement is low, so many dentists don't accept patients with coverage from that program. And Medicare, which provides health insurance for people 65 and older, generally covers only dental work in conjunction with a medical procedure, such as reconstruction of the jaw after an accidental injury. That leaves basic dental services such as cleanings, fillings and removal or replacement of teeth uncovered.
