BEACHBURG — Adding your name to a petition is one way to help ease the dental pain felt by some low-income earners in the community.
The Whitewater Bromley Community Health Centre (WBCHC) is asking Renfrew County residents to sign a petition calling on the Ontario government to expand publicly-funded dental programs to cover low-income adults and seniors. It’s part of a province-wide effort to fix the current situation that sees most publicly-funded dental assistance programs limited to youth 17 years of age and under.
Petitions are currently available at: the office of the Township of Admaston/Bromley (477 Stone Rd., Renfrew), the WBCHC offices (20 Robertson Dr., Beachburg and 70 Main St., Cobden) or by calling the WBCHC. The signed petitions will be presented to Renfrew-Nippissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski this month.
While the Ontario government has promised to expand dental coverage to adults and seniors by 2025, the petition calls for that to be done within two years. Investing now in an expanded dental program makes sense when there is a clear need for this type of assistance.
“Many low-income adults with serious dental problems suffer in pain now because they cannot afford to see a dental professional for preventive care,” says Lara Mylly, Health Promoter with the Whitewater Bromley Community Health Centre. “As a result, these individuals have no choice but to seek treatment at a hospital emergency room (ER). Usually, all the ER staff can do is prescribe painkillers and antibiotics, which can help with pain, but doesn’t address the root cause of the problem.”
According to the Ontario Oral Health Alliance, every nine minutes someone in Ontario winds up in a hospital ER with a dental problem, costing the health care system approximately $31 million every year with no treatment of the problem. Based on data from IntelliHEALTH ONTARIO Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, there were 1556 visits to Renfrew County hospital ERs in 2015 for oral health issues costing our health system a whopping $798 228! This cost has increased 11 percent from 2012 and the cost of the ER care at just under $1 million per year eased only the symptoms of the dental problems for very short-term relief leaving the existing dental disease untreated.
“We know that adults and seniors who need dental care, but can’t afford to see the dentist, are falling through the cracks,” Ms. Mylly says. “If the money spent on ER visits was directed towards preventive dental visits, it would result in better care and reduced costs in the long run.”
She added, “We thank our progressive council members representing the Township of Admaston/Bromley for their recent endorsement of a resolution to expand public dental programs. Planning is underway to address other Councils locally, both at the Municipal and County level, to seek their endorsement of the resolution as well.”
People can also visit the Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC) website site to send an electronic message directly to Ontario Health Minister Erik Hoskins asking that publicly-funded dental programs be expanded to cover adults and seniors.
