Dental Plan

The goat on the porch, the five plates of very old fried chicken on the counter, the overflowing litter boxes, the grandpa answering the front door in his boxers at 2:30 in the afternoon, the mom who couldn't stay awake during our meeting because of her prescription drug addiction, the suspected drug deals behind the closed bedroom door, the cockroaches crawling across her foot, and the dirty/neglected adopted children are just some of the situations I've dealt with over the years. I've seen lots of good stuff and lots of bad stuff providing educational and social services in private homes in Washington and now in Utah. Today, though, I heard of something new. Something new after 20 years in this kind of work is a rare thing.

Almost 80% of the children and families I work are on Medicaid. Our county has the highest drug use in the whole state of Utah. We have syndromes and genetic disorders some doctors have never heard of and don't know how to treat. It would take two hands for me to count all the sad little families I see who aren't working with full decks. It's not their fault -- the genetics are fairly messed up around here.

This morning a member of our team went to a home, actually a crappy apartment in town that no one should be allowed to rent out and much less allowed to live in, and waited a few minutes for the young 20-something single mom to come back. She had been at the dentist, the note on the door said, and would be right back. Huffing and puffing she came to the door having walked across town from the dentist. Her minimum wage job at Wendy's doesn't allow for a car. The mom said it was fine for our team member to come in to work with her and her autistic two year old son, but one look at her changed the plan. She was the one who had the dentist appointment, as evidenced by her huge left cheek. Explaining through her swollen and throbbing mouth she said a tooth had been removed. She went onto explain how her dental plan works: when she gets a cavity she lets it go -- when it turns into a situation where a root canal would be helpful she lets it go -- when the tooth is so painful and rotting at the core then she goes to the dentist for it to be pulled. She can't afford to do preventive dental care and Wendy's doesn't provide insurance. So, she just waits until the tooth has to come out as that's all she can pay for.

This young mom is not even 25 yet. I've seen, smelled, held and heard a tremendous amount of poverty in my work experience, but I've never known of someone making the economic choice to let their teeth rot. This woman lives in Utah, lives in the United States, and lives just a few blocks from the construction site of the new multi-million dollar LDS temple.

As the argument goes - she probably made some bad choices, didn't do well in school, and comes from a huge family with little opportunity. I'm sure she could have done better, but maybe not here and maybe not now.

I just thought more people should know about her tonight.