High-income people are taking care of teeth five times as much as low-income people

ByVerónica Bautista

In America the difference of rich and poorEducational qualificationYaIQ, health conditionAlthough it can be seen in various places such as, it was found that the difference of rich and poor is affecting one gesture "smile" as well.

The US is experiencing a massive dental crisis that preferences dental care for the rich over the poor - Quartz
https://qz.com/984554/the-us-is-experiencing-a-massive-dental-crisis-that-preferences-dental-care-for-the-rich-over-the-poor/

In the United States, millions of people make tooth root canal treatments and teeth on teeth while people who have affordable money are paying a great deal of cost to treat their teethCrownIt is in a condition that we can not receive basic treatment such as. As a manifestation of it, in 2011, Kyle Willis, who was 24 years old at the time, stopped teeth treatment because "I am unemployed and insurance can not be used", and finallyDental infection reached the brain and died.

In the American dentist basically insurance is not available, it is said that 100,000 yen will be needed to repair one tooth decay. Therefore, in order to treat a decayed tooth, it is necessary to receive full charity or emergency medical care, except for a person who separately subscribes to dental insurance. Also, even if you go into dental insurance, you can not use insurance right away, there are restrictions on the content of treatment and the amount of coverage, usually reaching the upper limit of 1000 to 2000 dollars (about 11 to 220,000 yen) I will. For this reason, there are a lot of people who are far from the dentist.

ByAnthony C

(PDF file)Report published by CDC in 2015According to, the proportion of those who need to go to the dentist but who did not go for reasons of expenses is proportional to the decrease in income.


By "a ratio of leaving tooth decay" by age and income it is like this. The lower the income for any age, the easier it is to leave the tooth decayed, and in the strata where the income is less than $ 23,050 (about 2.6 million yen) and the layer that is more than $ 92,200 (about 10 million yen), the difference There are also 4 to 5 times as much.


We also reported on The Washington Post about this issue, and over 2 million of the patients who were brought to the emergency room in the United States in 2016 were caused by neglected decayed teeth.

Some Americans spend billions to get teeth whiter. Some wait in line to get them pulled. | The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2017/05/13/the-painful-truth-about-teeth/

Some hospitals do volunteer free medical treatment for low-income people, and Salisbury, Maryland hospital has hired more than 100 dentists to see 1,000 first patients who came to volunteer treatment Did. The dentists said that they treated them in order of those who visited, but the patient who actually received treatment at the hospital talks about the situation "It was like a third world." The patient performed X-ray photography and tooth extraction, but it is said that treatment which requires 600 to 800 dollars (about 67,000 to 89,000 yen) usually becomes free in the hospital of volunteer . There are several hospitals doing volunteer work, and it is estimated that these annual costs will amount to 1.6 billion dollars (about 170 billion yen), but in hospital emergency treatment rooms it is usually necessary to have patients with tooth problems Of antibiotics and analgesicsOpioidJust do not do fundamental treatment. This is,One cause of drug addicts and deathsThat is why it was necessary to solve the problem.

In addition, it is known that there is a difference depending not only on income but also on race whether or not there is a decayed tooth. The percentage of African Americans who are 20 to 44 years old whose income is less than or equal to about 2.6 million yen is 41.4%, which is about twice the proportion of whites in the same age and same income group who will become tooth decayed. In addition, the proportion of Hispanic people of the same category becoming caries is 35%, the proportion of Asian Americans becoming tooth decay is about half of that of white people.