Juliet Smith underwent corrective jaw surgery at age 15, soon after shedeveloped jaw pain, dental problems including tooth loss and related medical problems resulting in multiple hospitalizations. She also has lost roughly half her adult teeth. Doctors recommended she undergo “medically necessary” dental surgery, but her father’s supplemental insurance had consistently rejected the recommendation citing it as a dental not medical issue. We learned that Juliet is like a growing number of Americans who are stuck straddling the medical and dental worlds, an insurance limbo affecting more Americans who find themselves with little or no dental coverage. Also we learned that this is a national problem with insurers (behind closed doors) are paring down medical coverage of dental-related procedures that in the past were covered and calling them “dental” problems.
