Dental Health and Inequality

Dental care is something we've been very intrigued with lately, especially dental health and its relation to socio-economic status. In the U.S., people are more likely to have poor oral health if they are low income, uninsured, and/or members of minority populations. If we really want to address social inequality in America, dental care can't continue to be overlooked, especially by those in financial services. Poor oral health makes it difficult to find and maintain employment, and has been shown to have a clear connection to impacting mental and physical health.

In this edition of the Token Advice newsletter, we take a look at some glaring stats that highlight the issue with our dental care being divorced from our medical care. It's our mission at 401 to provide a well-rounded financial relationship with our clients, and we believe that includes more than money. It's the mental, physical, and social well-being of all people. Like most issues plaguing our country, the dental health crisis begins and ends with our children. According to a National Health Interview Survey, Hispanic children had the poorest dental health and lowest preventive dental care utilization, followed by Black then White children. Socioeconomic status accounted for 71% of the gap in preventive dental care between Black children and White children and 55% of that between Hispanic children and White children.

Here's more proof of this being a socio-economic problem faced by many children in the richest nation in the world. 'Dental caries is the most common chronic childhood disease, and the burden of dental caries falls disproportionately on low-income and minority children. Children living in poverty have about five times more untreated dental decay than children from higher-income families.'

This leads us to look at the issue of dental insurance being excluded from our medical insurance. A recent survey from Value Penguin found that those without dental insurance are twice as likely to be unhappy with their teeth as those who are insured. 34% of those without insurance are not satisfied with the condition of their teeth, compared with 17% of those who are insured. In addition, this stat from Dissent Magazine paints an even more grim picture of the issue: 'The fact that more than a million Americans a year turn to hospital emergency rooms for non-traumatic dental problems such as toothaches is a grim reminder of the disconnect between the dental and medical care systems. These visits cost roughly $1 billion a year, but the patients seldom get the services they need because ERs infrequently offer real dental care.'

We've sadly reached a point where dental care has become a 'privilege' for the everyday American. However, there are some realities we need to face as well. Dentists, like 33 million others in America, are small business owners and need to run a profitable business to survive. This is why many of them look to set up private practices in affluent areas. In 2021, the number of dentists who owned their practices was 73%, according to research from the ADA. As a result, there's a dearth of high-quality and affordable dental care for those in low-income urban and rural areas. This is a complex topic that requires complex answers, time, and social awareness. We know this is a bit outside the scope of what we would normally cover, but we feel it's connected to our mission to acknowledge and serve ALL people. Every American, regardless of their zip code, deserves the best dental care just as they deserve access to financial planning.