Smile Healthy!

Thursday, October 31, 2002

Anna Armstrong hasn’t been to the dentist in 10 years. She cleans her teeth and gums the best she can, but she knows it’s only a matter of time before she has problems with her teeth. However, the mother of six young children simply can’t afford to pay the dentist.

“I’ve gone to different dentists and asked if they do payment plans and they say, ‘No, no, no,’ ” she said. The salary she earns as a childcare worker in Rantoul goes to feed, clothe and house her family, with little left over for anything else. Although Armstrong is eligible for Medicaid, only one clinic in Champaign County accepts Medicaid and it has a waiting list of 800 people, according to Champaign County Health Care Consumers.

Armstrong’s four oldest children are enrolled in the new Champaign County Health Department Child Dental Health Access Program, which provides free dental care to children from low-income families. “Before that, they had never gone to the dentist. I knew they needed to, but I couldn’t afford to take them,” Armstrong said. Her three oldest daughters have all had cavities filled and the 8-year-old has visited an orthodontist.

But there is no similar program for Armstrong and thousands of other adults with low incomes in Champaign County. The Champaign County Dental Referral Program offers dental visits to adults on a sliding fee scale. However, patients need to be able to pay at least 40 percent of the fee, and many people cannot afford to pay.

Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of Champaign County Health Care Consumers, says that more than half of the 100 calls a month to her organization’s health care hotline are about dental care. “People are saying, ‘I can’t afford dental care. I have a broken molar.’ Or ‘I have an infection.’ ‘I need dentures.’ ”

“We have people who come to us with horrible raging infections unable to eat who have to keep going to the emergency room to manage their dental problems,” Lennhoff said.