By: Joel Rubin

People live longer today and keep at least some of their teeth well into old age too.

But if they enter a nursing home on Medicaid, that’s when their dental care typically ends because that program provides little or no coverage even for cleanings.

The result is loose and broken teeth or painful gums, which cause many seniors to stop eating, become malnourished and start a cascading decline in overall health.

“Once that happens, they may end up in a hospital where treatment costs can be extremely high,” says Frank Iuorno, DDS, who heads a task force for our client, the Virginia Dental Association, which is lobbying the state to provide funding for a hygienist or other oral care professional in nursing homes across Virginia. “If we could screen these individuals more closely, we could get them to a dentist and avoid higher costing care later.”

To demonstrate the dental state of nursing home residents, Dr. Iuorno and more than 20 other volunteers from the VDA and Virginia Dental Hygienists Association descended on the Envoy at Westover Hills nursing home in Richmond on June 20. With the data they collected that day, they hope to convince the Commonwealth to fund a larger pilot project that will lead to more dental care for nursing home residents.

The Richmond Times Dispatch was interested and filed a story the following Sunday. http://www.timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/health/your-health/your-health-task-force-targets-dental-needs-of-seniors/article_0031c6d2-6495-588f-a707-2b853f9c6f0f.html?mode=story   And Joel Rubin and videographer Mitchell Bradley were there to record the daylong event for a video that will run on a number of websites and be furnished to legislators.

“This is a very vulnerable population,” says Rubin, who has volunteered in nursing homes for more than 30 years himself. “It’s sad to see these seniors lose their smiles because they can’t enjoy decent dental care. I am proud of the VDA for stepping up to help.”