Today's Managing Health Care Costs Number is $6.8 billion
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This month's Health Affairs is focused on oral care. Dental care represents about 5% of total out of pocket health care spending, and access to dental insurance is highly variable. Those at highest risk for dental disease, the elderly, are much less likely to have dental insurance (38%) than those of working age (67%). LINK Dental insurance often has benefit caps which mean that a substantial amount of cost remains out of pocket.
One of the biggest public health successes of the last century is Floridization of water -which decreases dental caries by at least 25%. My mouth is filled with amalgam - and every few years I need a crown for a tooth that can no longer be refilled. My adult children are cavity free. But Floridization remains inexplicably (to me) controversial - and 27% of children grow up in communities without fluoridated water.
Researcherscalculated costs of adding fluoride to community water supply, and projected cost savings from decrease in cavities only. The answer:
Based on 2013 estimated costs ($324 million), net savings (savings minus costs) from fluoridation systems were estimated to be $6,469 million and the estimated return on investment, 20.0.
This substantially understates the true benefit of floridization of community water supplies. Those prevented cavities don't merely decrease future cost of dental care - they likely decrease costs of other medical care - as well as lost economic input from decreased job opportunities for those who have bad teeth.
Cost of Caries
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