# Why is your mouth not covered under medical insurance?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-your-mouth-not-covered-under-medical-insurance/477748>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 18, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-your-mouth-not-covered-under-medical-insurance/477748 "2008-12-18T15:22:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-your-mouth-not-covered-under-medical-insurance/477748/21 "2008-12-19T09:59:40Z")

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It’s one of the things that makes me glum about the current state of medicare. I saw **Hamish** completely incapacitated and next to out of his mind with pain from a severe dental problem, and yet enduring it because he couldn’t afford any treatment until his student dental plan kicked in in a week’s time.

Many dental conditions have repercussions in the rest of the body and it makes no sense not to cover at least emergency dental care.

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**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-your-mouth-not-covered-under-medical-insurance/477748/22 "2008-12-19T12:50:37Z")

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Some years back, when I was working as a claims processor, we had a claim for a child who’d had a severe accident that required a LOT of dental and surgical work to his mouth, as well as general anesthesia and aftercare. It took several months to work its way through our system.

Robin

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