For months, Carlton Clemons endured crippling pain from a rotting wisdom tooth. He couldn’t sleep, barely ate and relied on painkillers to get by.

The 67-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, could not afford to see a dentist on the $1,300-a-month his family gets in Social Security and disability payments. So he waited for the state to roll out a program this year that offers dental care to the more than 650,000 Medicaid recipients like him who are 21 and older. Tennessee is spending about $75 million annually on the program.

“Man, I thought I had made it to heaven because the pain was over,” he said after the tooth was pulled in July at the Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry. “When they did pull it out, I was so happy. I was so glad. Everything just changed after that.”

  • Xilly@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    50
    ·
    1 year ago

    Dental care should be included with medical. It’s ridiculous that it isn’t.

      • pythonoob@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        Teeth are inherently trans because of the nature of baby teeth turning into adult teeth. We can’t have any of that shit. Can you believe that minors are electing to have their wisdom teeth (given by God) pulled?! How can we allow this kind of heathen behavior.

  • Potato_in_my_anus
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    All these people who need healthcare but keep complaining that FREE is socialism 🙄

  • Maeve@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    We should have universal healthcare at no more cost to the patient. We paid for it so give it to us. No more corporate/billionaire welfare.

  • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    While in college, my wife worked a summer in a local factory. She said what stood out the most was that everyone except the managers had bad teeth.

    And Teeth are part of our body. Why it is not part of every health insurance plan is bizarre.