Tag Archives: pediatric

Dentist under investigation after sedated child dies

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A Hawaiian pre-schooler died after lapsing into a coma in a dentist’s chair. Now state authorities are investigating her dentist, according to a report by Susan Essoyan of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. (The articles are behind a paywall but AHCJ has been given permission to republish them here.)

“The state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has begun an investigation of Kailua dentist Dr. Lilly Geyer after a 3-year-old girl fell into a coma while she was in the dentist’s chair and later died,” Essoyan reported on Jan. 8.

“Finley Puleo Boyle, the only child of Ashley and Evan Boyle of Kai­lua, never awoke after losing consciousness and suffering massive brain damage following heavy sedation at the dentist’s office Dec. 3, her mother said.”

The little girl died Jan. 3 at a local hospice. Continue reading →

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

National look reveals gap in access to pediatric dental care

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Dental hygenist

Image by The National Guard via flickr.

Catherine Saint Louis of The New York Times took a hard national look at the pediatric dental benefits being offered on the state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

Her reporting led her to the troubling gulf that oral health advocates have been warning about.

While kids’ dental coverage is included as one of the 10 essential health benefits under the nation’s health care reform law, “pediatric dental care is handled differently” from other coverage on the federal and state exchanges, she wrote in her Dec. 16 story, “A Gap In the Affordable Care Act.”

Dental plans “are often sold separately from medical insurance, and dental coverage for children is optional,” she noted. “People shopping on the exchanges are not required to buy it and do not receive financial support for buying it.”

Experts have cautioned that the problems could leave millions of children without access to dental care. Continue reading →

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

ACA requires dental coverage for kids; find out if it will be accessible

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Once the ACA covers children's dental care, will parents drop their dental insurance?

Photo by ianus via Flickr

The new health insurance exchanges mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are required to offer pediatric dental benefits. 

But what procedures will be covered under the plans being offered in the states?

Will the benefits be affordable?

Will families actually buy them?

Three million children are expected to gain dental coverage through these insurance marketplaces over the next five years, according to the American Dental Association.

But states are still in the process of integrating dental benefits into the coverage that will be offered when their marketplaces open in the fall. Continue reading →

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.