How do you misjudge me with the dental question?

My question is how does someone without insurance, or money get needed dental work done? ADA gave me no help.

• Indiviual is on medicare but no other insurance. Has no other financial rescource. Plus she is disabled and not near any dental school which still costs alot and long waiting lists. She has 2 artificial knees so infection is an issue, also. I am also disablied and not able to help with money.

• Answer:

  If your state association does not work with a charity care program (some do - some don't), try your local United Way as a clearing house to direct you to some possible resource for your care. Personally, I had a few bad experiences with my state's charity care screening and I dropped out after about 20 years participation. To replace that, I choose one person a year to get charity care at "up to" 100% reduction in fee. No, I don't have the ability to do a financial review the way they do, but I decided that I can do a better job in my own community of knowing who needs and deserves help and who doesn't. MAYBE you can find a dentist near you with the same attitude. Unfortunately, you might be to "well off" for Medicaid, but it is worth looking into. Side bar: The "final straw" with me and our charity program was when they sent me a patient was was covered by Medicaid, but didn't think she wanted to trust a "Medicaid dentist" with her mouth. She kind of missed the point... The one before that was a resident of a nursing home 45 minutes from me. In my state, the nursing home is required BY LAW to provide dental care for their residents, but the family had heard of me, blah, blah, blah, and found out I was on the charity list and asked if they could be referred to me.