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@Galadriel724, a couple of years ago, the Toronto Star did a series of reports on the need for socialized dentistry.
We’ve had socialized healthcare here for decades, and it’s made a huge difference. When you no longer have to choose between getting the medical care you need, and losing everything you own, it benefits everyone. (My dad still remembers the pre-socialized healthcare time, when his family nearly lost everything in order to pay for his mother to be institutionalized for several months, when she suffered a severe bout of depression.)
The Star’s investigation told of a Korean shopkeeper, who couldn’t afford dental care, and ended up going blind when the infection in an abscessed tooth spread to his brain. By the time he qualified to have the tooth removed as an “emergency” case, it was too late. Now, he’s permanently disabled, and his care costs the system far more than if it had just paid to repair his infected tooth in the first place.
The saddest case was that of a young man, who’d had terrible teeth his whole life, because his family could not afford any dental care. As a result, he’d been completely toothless since the age of about 23, which made it impossible for him to get hired for any job. When the article ran (complete with front-page photo of him), several dentists contacted the Star, offering free dental care. A few weeks later, the Star ran a follow-up, with new front-page photo of the young man, positively beaming with his new teeth…and with the news that he’d finally landed a job!
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