Wednesday, May 30, 2012
01.30.12 Louisiana spent $1.7 million on Medicaid patients who visited statewide emergency rooms seeking pain relief from toothaches during fiscal year 2010-11. The year before, the state paid $1.66 million for the same reason, according to Department of Health and Hospitals data.

Those hospital visits didn't solve the problem. Unlike dentists and oral surgeons, ER doctors and other physicians can't pull a tooth. So, the thousands of Medicaid and other government health program recipients who visit an ER each year in Louisiana seeking help for toothaches, tooth abscesses and other dental emergencies receive only palliative care and a referral to an oral surgeon.

"It is a very rare event when I do not see one dental complaint during a (12-hour) shift," said Dr. Alan Sorkey, a local ER physician who noted 226 of the 6,336 patients he treated last year suffered from toothaches. Many of those patients, Sorkey said, had previously visited an ER for the same complaint. "The vast majority, greater than 99 percent, are toothaches almost always due to decay."
 
To read the full story, visit The Shreveport Times.

 

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