The impact of dental care on business and education

Cheap Health Care Benefits: The Business Side of Dental Care

Cheap health care benefits impact more than just the bank account of the individual receiving care. Every year, dental diseases result in the loss of millions of productive hours. According to the American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA), workers lost more than 164 million work hours because of the lack of dental care. Dental pain causes absences, loss of concentration, and can contribute to other sicknesses - all of which can affect a company's bottom line.

And in this case the old adage, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, holds true. Restorative treatment is much more expensive than preventative services; the average cost of one sealant is less than half that of one silver filling. Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, water fluoridation, which is recommended to strengthen teeth, costs only $0.72 per person.

The loss of productivity due to dental care extends to education as well. Children miss nearly 52 million hours of school each year (an average of 1.17 hours per child) because of dental treatment problems, the most common reason being for the treatment of cavities (53 percent of 6-8 year olds and 84 percent of 17 year olds have received treatment for cavities). And when you consider that children and adolescents living in poverty suffer double the amount of tooth decay, this loss of school time becomes even more serious.

Therefore, cheap health care benefits that include basic dental care could greatly impact the productivity of business as well as schools. Related Links
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