U.S Sen. Dick Durbin said the struggle to improve dental care for low-income people is going the wrong way in Washington. During an appearance at Chestnut Health Systems in Bloomington Durbin said that's particularly true for children.
"I found some terrible things. 24% of the dentists licensed to practice in the state of Illinois actually treat a Medicaid patient, any Medicaid patient. About 14% of the dentists in our state treat one a week," said Durbin.
Durbin said a $1 trillion reduction in Medicaid will cause a healthcare crisis in the nation.
“We've made a significant investment in expanding dental services as part of our integrated model of primary medical care, behavioral health and substance use treatment. What we're seeing is that far too many individuals and families in our community face real barriers to dental care, long wait times, limited providers who accept Medicaid and gaps in specialized services,” said Chestnut CEO Puneet Leekha.
He said community health centers like Chestnut continue to face challenges related to funding and workforce.
Chestnut Dentist Anne Koehne said there is widespread need for dental care at all ages.
"I think we're seeing more advanced decay at a rapid rate in our pediatric population, but I think that's because we need more intervention. We need more preventative services. We need more mobile programs in order to get to the schools," said Koehne.
Time on the wait list for a non-emergency appointment at the Chestnut dental clinic is four months. A root canal referral can take two years, and Durbin said those referred must go to Chicago.
“It's a pretty significant waitlist for us. Our waitlist for specialty programs, it's getting close to 100. So, we probably have to turn away at least 15 to 20 patients a day, because we just don't have the capacity to see them,” said Koehne.
The clinic does triage for prompt emergency treatment.
Dental health = health
Koehne said consequences of inadequate dental care can be profound to overall health.
“From the pediatric standpoint, it affects speech development and those developmental milestones. From the adult aspect, and even with our pediatric populations, it can really affect systemic conditions. It can exacerbate blood sugar in our diabetic patients. If people have active decay, that's active infection. A chronic infection for a long period of time can lead to sepsis and potentially death,” said Koehne.
Durbin praised dentists like Koehne who are willing to spend some years after medical school offering care to low-income people in return for student loan forgiveness. He said the average dentist comes out of school with $600,000 in debt. It can be a hard sell because dentists at federally qualified clinics like Chestnut typically make 40% less than dentists in private practice.
"It's a battle. And we can make the odds better for qualified healthcare clinics if we do loan forgiveness for the medical professionals involved. That just makes sense to me," said Durbin.
Despite efforts to cut such programs, Durbin said it may be possible to preserve the dental student loan forgiveness effort, though the Trump administration has proposed elimination.
“We should be expanding this program instead of fighting for its survival. It is the answer to a real unmet need in this community,” said Durbin.
