What About Dental Care?

Community colleges that train dental hygienists and assistants, will usually provide a thorough examination, complete X-rays, cleaning and periodontal treatment, and advice on self-care for a very low cost (under $100) -- which is most people's best bang for the buck. 

They will also tell you if further work needs to be done -- so that one obtains a "second opinion" first, rather than as a luxury most people (think) they cannot afford -- before having further extensive work done.  Cosmetic dentistry is like cosmetic surgery -- they will do as much of it as one can afford.  So one should have this grounding in what absolutely needs to be done -- as opposed to what could be done if cost were not an issue.

Many community clinics will do extractions only for free -- or at a very low cost.

But the key in dental as well as medical care, is (preventive ) self-care -- which makes the biggest difference, and failing to address this first first line of defense as primary care rather prohibitively costly professional care too late down the road, is the massive failure and disconnect of the present course of health care that no amount of money can ever solve. 

There's just not enough free money the government can create, to solve all the problems people can create fro themselves, when they think it is somebody else's primary job to take care of themselves -- which is the critical problem of aging in the poorest adapting populations.  They never learned to care for themselves well, first -- as their primary responsiblity, as nature intended.  That is the missing link in the "caring" equation.  That is the viable, sustainable, cost-effective future -- and NOT another massive government-funded DEBACLE -- promoted by the media.