Cincinnati father with no insurance dies from toothache
Posted on: September 6, 2011
Cincinnati father with no insurance dies from toothache
He could not afford treatment or medications
Willis died of a very treatable tooth infection due to lack of insurance, photo via social media
A 24-year-old father died this week due to a tooth infection for which he could not afford to be treated.
Kyle Willis, an aspiring paralegal with a 6-year-old daughter, began having tooth pain two weeks ago. The culprit was one of his wisdom teeth.
According to ABC News, Willis made it to the dentist who advised him to have the tooth extracted. Since he was unemployed and had no insurace, he decided to forego the procedure and hoped the pain would resolve itself in time.
Quite the opposite was true, however. Soon, his toothache turned to near agony and his face began to swell.
Willis went to the local ER and was seen. Again he was advised that the tooth had to come out.
“The [doctors] gave him antibiotic and pain medication,”said Willis’ aunt Patti Collins, wife of musician Bootsy Collins. “But he couldn’t afford to pay for the antibiotic, so he chose the pain meds, which was not what he needed.”
The infection from his tooth spread into his brain and Willis died on Tuesday.
University Hospital in Cincinnati, where Willis was admitted, did not comment, citing federal privacy laws.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case.
“People don’t realize that dental disease can cause serious illness,” said Dr. Irvin Silverstein, a dentist at the University of California at San Diego. “The problems are not just cosmetic. Many people die from dental disease.”
Access to affordable health and dental insurance is difficult to find for low-income or no-income families.
In April, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 33 percent of people surveyed skipped dental care or dental checkups because they couldn’t afford them. A 2003 report by the U.S. Surgeon General found that 108 million Americans had no dental insurance, nearly 2.5 times the number who had no health insurance.
“People want to believe there’s a safety net that catches all of these people, and there isn’t,” said Dr. Glenn Stream, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He noted that it is often young men who are the most likely to lack health coverage.
There are several free dental clinics in operation around the country. Dentists volunteer to provide care to those without health insurance at these clinics. But even if Willis had access to a free dental clinic, Stream said he still may not have been able to get the care he needed for his infection since these free clinics are overwhelmed with patients. “The wait is often months, and this young man died within two weeks of his problem,” Stream said.
3 Responses to "Cincinnati father with no insurance dies from toothache"
December 27, 2011 at 2:48 pm
It is such a sad event in life to loose someone on a thing we thought is just simple. We should not really disregard things like this, even what seems simple can do a lot worst to you.
October 11, 2012 at 3:53 pm
What you have said is very true but people still does not care about these things.
October 3, 2011 at 7:12 am
This is sad to hear, this is also a lesson to all.