Sunday, February 25, 2007

The Mountaineer: Haywood gets a health checkup

The Mountaineer: Haywood gets a health checkup:

Haywood County, North Carolina, is fluoridated:

"Dental care remains a major concern for low income child and adult populations. The health department dental clinic provided 14,713 services last fiscal year. Even with this amount of work, children have an appointment wait of two months to see the dentist and three to four months to see a dental hygienist, Tate said."

"There are no practices that regularly accept patients with difficulty paying. The health department has no appointments available for new low-income adults, and other providers in the county do not take Medicaid or provide sliding fee scales and/or payment options.

Numerous adults suffer from poor oral health with a lack of dental hygiene and abscesses from tooth decay."