Panel hears dental stories of horror

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1997 | 4:23 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Some children from low-income families in Las Vegas use pliers to yank out their decaying or abscessed teeth.

In one case, a mother in Clark County soaked a cotton ball with antiseptic and used it as a tooth filling. She put candle wax over the cotton ball to hold it in place in the child's mouth.

These are some of the stories emerging as a coalition of agencies in Southern Nevada fight to get more dental care for not only poor children but for adults and senior citizens.

Only 18 percent of the children covered by the state's Medicaid program are able to see a dentist each year. And there are 7- to 13-year-olds who have never seen a dentist.

A sampling of school children in a low-income district showed 67 percent had accelerated decay and 50 percent had some decay.

Assemblywoman Sandi Krenzer, D-Las Vegas, said there's an epidemic in dental disease among children on Medicaid and those from families without insurance. Kids in schools with decaying teeth are the brunt of jokes. And it's impossible for a child with an abscess to concentrate on studies when he or she is in so much pain.

After hearing dental horror stories, the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee ordered a bill to create a coordinator in the state Health Division to pull together the fragmented low-cost dental services for children.

Larry Gamell, director of community relations for the Community Health Centers of Southern Nevada, said, "The only immediate relief we could push for is establishment of dental clinics."

About 500 children went through a screening program last year at the health centers and were referred to dentists. But Gamell said one report shows that 30,000 children in the Las Vegas area need dental work.

"Nations are judged by how they treat their children," Gamell said. "If that applied to a state, we kind of failed the test."