Dental Insurance

Times are tough enough for Californians; they're even tougher for Californians' teeth. "One-quarter of all adults and 28% of children in California have untreated dental caries [cavities]," says Len Finocchio, a senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, a health advocacy group. "Our research tells us that many people in California have been avoiding routine care that might have cost about $100 for a checkup and cleaning, and then find themselves in the emergency room, where they get only an antibiotic, a bill that can average over $600 and instructions to see a dentist."

The Los Angeles school board agreed Tuesday to renew a deal with the district's dental insurance provider over the objections of a board member who had persuaded his colleagues to defeat an earlier version. Two weeks ago, Richard Vladovic complained that MetLife had tried to overcharge him for a mouth guard and then provided poor customer service, even though he acknowledged MetLife representatives eventually apologized. Vladovic won the support of three other board members to reject a three-year, multimillion-dollar contract renewal with the company, which provides insurance to nearly 100,000 current and former L.A. Unified School District employees.

Dr. F. Gene Dixon, a dentist who helped make dental insurance accessible to millions of Americans with the founding of the company now known as Delta Dental of California, has died. He was 84. Dixon fell on the driveway outside his house in San Mateo, Calif., causing a head injury, said his wife, Rosemary Dixon. He died at a hospital the next day, Oct. 26. Though dental insurance is now a popular employee benefit, Dixon began his work at a time when most had not even heard of it.

Overwhelmed by demand for dental services, organizers of a massive free mobile health clinic asked some patients who had Tuesday appointments to return next week, a hitch in an otherwise smooth first day at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The need for dental work was nearly double what organizers saw on the first day of a similar free clinic held in August, said Roger Fieldman, a dentist who serves as volunteer dental director. Much of the increased demand was tied to the state's elimination of adult Denti-Cal last summer, Fieldman said.

Overwhelmed by demand for dental services, organizers of a massive free mobile health clinic asked some patients who had Tuesday appointments to return next week, a hitch in an otherwise smooth first day at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The need for dental work was nearly double what organizers saw on the first day of a similar free clinic held in August, said Roger Fieldman, a dentist who serves as volunteer dental director. Much of the increased demand was tied to the state's elimination of adult Denti-Cal last summer, Fieldman said.

A "silent epidemic" of oral diseases plagues the United States, where about a third of the population has no fluoridated water on tap, more than a third lack dental insurance and nearly a third of the elderly have lost all their natural teeth, according to an unprecedented report released Thursday by the U.S. surgeon general.

"I gave the working people a service for a price they couldn't get elsewhere." --Edgar Rudolph "Painless" Parker, a controversial California dentist from early this century. * By all accounts, "Painless" Parker, who set up shop in Los Angeles in the early 1900s, was a real piece of dental work. Sporting a beaver-skin hat and a necklace strung with extracted incisors, Parker used traveling circuses, newspaper jingles and jugglers to promote business.

The Pentagon said it will provide dental insurance coverage to an estimated 2.5 million dependents of active-duty members of the armed services under a $121-million contract. The contract with the Delta Dental Plan of San Francisco, however, is limited to dependents of personnel stationed in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A Camarillo dental insurance company that donated money to provide care for the needy and a women's group that helped a homeless woman buy clothes for her daughter were among several businesses and organizations honored this week by the Ventura County Commission on Human Concerns.

In another blow to Gov. Pete Wilson's effort to claim more power over state spending, a Sacramento County Superior Court Judge on Friday ordered the governor not to require state employees to pay a share of the cost of their dental benefits.

Times are tough enough for Californians; they're even tougher for Californians' teeth. "One-quarter of all adults and 28% of children in California have untreated dental caries [cavities]," says Len Finocchio, a senior program officer at the California Healthcare Foundation, a health advocacy group. "Our research tells us that many people in California have been avoiding routine care that might have cost about $100 for a checkup and cleaning, and then find themselves in the emergency room, where they get only an antibiotic, a bill that can average over $600 and instructions to see a dentist."

Dr. F. Gene Dixon, a dentist who helped make dental insurance accessible to millions of Americans with the founding of the company now known as Delta Dental of California, has died. He was 84. Dixon fell on the driveway outside his house in San Mateo, Calif., causing a head injury, said his wife, Rosemary Dixon. He died at a hospital the next day, Oct. 26. Though dental insurance is now a popular employee benefit, Dixon began his work at a time when most had not even heard of it.

Children living in Santa Barbara County are four times as likely to lack health insurance and nearly three times as likely to lack dental coverage as those in Northern California's Solano County, according to a new statewide report that found wide regional disparities in children's well-being.

Maxicare Health Plans Inc. is negotiating to sell its California HMO business piecemeal to various health insurers, according to an attorney familiar with the discussions. Separately, the Indiana Department of Insurance has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Los Angeles-based Maxicare and the five former directors of its defunct Indiana operations. Maxicare, with 254,000 enrollees in California, is operating under Bankruptcy Court protection.

Maria Garcia leaned back in the dentist chair feeling none of the fear so common among dental patients. She wasn't worried about the drill, or the anesthetic, or the metal scraping tools. "Not nervous," she said. "So happy." Why? For a year, the 59-year-old immigrant from El Salvador has suffered from bleeding gums and pain in her molars so bad that she learned to chew with only her front teeth.

A "silent epidemic" of oral diseases plagues the United States, where about a third of the population has no fluoridated water on tap, more than a third lack dental insurance and nearly a third of the elderly have lost all their natural teeth, according to an unprecedented report released Thursday by the U.S. surgeon general.

Millions of Americans with rotting teeth and other oral diseases cannot afford to see the dentist, the government reported Monday. Americans' overall oral health has improved dramatically with the advent of fluoride and better dental education, the report by the Public Health Service said. But minorities, the poor and the elderly still have too many cavities, untreated and decaying teeth and diseases from gingivitis to oral cancer, the service concluded. Dr.

A federal judge has rejected as "grossly inadequate" California's plan to give the poor better access to dental care under the Medi-Cal health insurance program, and on Tuesday he ordered state health officials to dramatically raise the fees paid to dentists. State officials said they will comply and implement the fee hike by Feb. 1, as U.S. District Judge John Moulds instructed.

Safeguard Health Enterprises Inc., the Aliso Viejo provider of dental-care insurance, said Wednesday that an investment group led by CAI Partners and Co. and Jack R. Anderson agreed to invest $40 million to gain control of the company. Safeguard Health shares soared 50%, or $1.50, to $4.50 in Nasdaq trading. The shares had fallen about 55% from the 52-week high of $7.19 last July 15. CAI Partners and Anderson, president of closely held Calver Corp.

Most patients never receive a simple saliva test that can help prevent tooth decay. The reason? Dentists traditionally don't offer it, because they stand to make more money filling a cavity than preventing it, says Dr. Rory Hume, dean of UCLA's School of Dentistry. While a filling costs $100 to $200, the test runs about $25 to $50. What's more, insurance companies typically won't pay for it.