USA - Proposed Minn. dental cuts could land more in ERs

..............Already, almost a third of the patients who turn up for non-emergencies at Hennepin County Medical Center's emergency room in Minneapolis have dental issues. Toothaches. Advanced decay. Swollen faces.

HCMC treated about 4,500 such cases last year, at a cost of $2.6 million, said Dr. Anthony DiAngelis, chief of dentistry. The emergency department can give those patients antibiotics and painkillers, but they're usually sent on to the hospital's dental clinic or another dentist.

Then there are the cases that stick out - like the diabetic whose untreated toothache spread and turned into a flesh-eating infection. MacLeod said the man lost part of his chest wall and the skin on his neck, spent months in intensive care to stabilize his diabetes and got skin grafts that make it hard for him to open his mouth two years later...........

Fluoridation is required in all Minnesota public water supplies:NYSCOF