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GROWING NUMBERS OF PEOPLE HEADING TO EMERGENCY ROOMS FOR DENTAL PROBLEMS
Matthew Miller mrmiller@lsj.com
A GAP IN
CARE Laura Misjak lmisjak@lsj.com
A
t least two or three patients pass through the doors of a local emergency room every day with throbbing, unbearable toothaches. In most cases, the patients leave with prescriptions for antibiotics or painkillers — which may put them a bit more at ease. But the root of their pain remains. These are the patients who’ve fallen through the cracks. They are part of the growing population receiving assistance from Medicaid, the federal health care program designed primarily for the poor. Many private dentists refuse to accept Medicaid because of low reimbursement rates; many also refuse to treat the uninsured. It’s a growing problem in Michigan and across the country. Locally, there aren’t enough dentists in Ingham County who
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FAST FACTS More than
800,000 Trips to emergency rooms nationwide in 2009 for dental pain, according to the Pew Center on the States.
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Dr. Stephen Pittel, a dentist at the Ingham County Health Department dental clinic, examines Nancy Madden last week. GREG DERUITER/LSJ
provide care for those without insurance or on Medicaid, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The county is among more than a dozen in Michigan on a list of federally designated counties lacking dental care for lowincome populations.
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Trips made to Ingham County emergency rooms each year for dental-related problems. An estimated three to five patients, and sometimes as many as 10, go to Sparrow daily for dental problems, and two to three patients go daily to McLaren-Greater Lansing.
Snyder, Bing relationship strained by hardships DETROIT — Former allies Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing have found their planned cooperative relationship divided by Detroit’s fiscal collapse, differing viewpoints and harsh words. Bing has declared, "I won't work for the governor. I won't work for that financial team of nine people. I work for people in the city of Detroit because they voted me in to do this.” — Page 1B
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Shooting suspect had troubles LAKE TAPPS, Wash. — Afghanistan shooting
suspect Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was passed up for promotion, had financial troubles and was eyeing a way out of his job, records and interviews show. — Page 7A
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DEAR READERS The Doonesbury comic strip in today’s newspaper was provided by the Universal Uclick syndicate as an alternative to a weeklong series dealing with abortion issue politics. The comic strips by author Garry Trudeau do not reflect the satirical standard the Lansing State Journal expects from Doonesbury. The controversial panel is available on LSJ.com
Cost per patient for dental-related hospital stays in Ingham County.
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Northwestern Michigan College is the only school in Michigan that can count a 224-foot former Navy submarine surveillance ship among its classroom facilities. The Traverse City community college is home to the only federally chartered maritime academy on fresh water and the only one that can’t offer its students the four-year degrees they need to sit for the U.S. Coast Guard licensing exam for commercial shipping officers. The college’s imperfect solution is a partnership with Ferris State University that allows cadets to get a business degree but requires them to take 145 credits to finish both the nautical and financial portions of their education, rather than the 120 typical for a bachelor’s degree. Nate Lammers, a 27-year-old cadet in his second year at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, would just as soon skip the business degree. “If they were able to offer a bachelor’s degree (in maritime technology), they could tailor it more toward the shipping industry, more classes like admiralty law, more logistics-type stuff,” he said, not to mention the savings in time and tuition dollars. Leaders at Northwestern Michigan College and many other community colleges around the state would like nothing better than to give him what he
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