This week a poor mom who is 8 months pregnant is unable to eat because her teeth ache so badly. So she goes to a dentist, whose solution is to pull out two of her teeth. This is the second time in her pregnancy that she has had sore teeth pulled out. “Better to do it now,” the mom explains to me, “I may not have coverage in the future.”
Yesterday I’m sitting across the table eating lunch with a poor young dad in his early twenties. “How long have you stopped smoking?” I ask him. “Ever since my tooth started to hurt,” he says, “It started to crumble in my mouth and I had the worst headaches.” “What did the dentist say?” I naively ask. “I can’t afford a dentist, so I pulled it out myself with tweezers.” He opens his mouth to show me his handiwork. Pretty good job, I remark. He says he feels much better now.