ORLANDO, Fla. – Sixty-six of Florida’s 67 counties lack sufficient dental professionals and almost half of the state’s population does not have dental insurance.

A common theme emerged among those seeking help at one Daytona Beach high school offering free dental services last month.

“Aspen Dental wants $6,000; well, I don’t have that,” Diana Marcam said.

“Dental work is very expensive these days,” April Taylor told News 6.

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The need for care was made clear by those who lined up, even before dawn, to secure their spot.

“We were here at 3:30 this morning,” Marcam explained.

“I’m trying to get my partials done because I’ve really needed it. It’s been a year, and they say it costs $4,000,” Juwun Mills said.

According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration Florida ranked 50th in the percentage of children receiving an annual dental visit in 2021. The same report shows that the state ranked 42nd in the percentage of adults getting a dental check-up that same year and that annually, nearly 120,000 Floridians visit the emergency room for non-traumatic dental conditions.

“At the emergency department, they’re not getting dental care. They don’t do dentistry. They’re getting a pain pill, hopefully not an opioid. They’re getting an antibiotic, which holds it off because it is a bacterial infection. But once that antibiotic wears off, it will start again and it can go into an abscess very, very quickly,” Catherine Cabanzon said.

Cabanzon, a dental hygienist and founder of Floridians for Dental Access, expressed concern about the state’s dental care system.

“There are 67 different diseases and conditions that are associated with the mouth and oral health. We are not a third-world country. We really should be able to do better. There are not many Medicaid providers within the state of Florida, and in my county as well. Those who are Medicaid providers may not be accepting new patients for three, four, five, or six months. When you have an emergency, you can’t wait. That’s what drives people to the ER,” she said.

She said that increasing the number of dental professionals in the field who can offer routine visits is crucial to help prevent poor oral health.

“So if a person is lined up for two hours to deal with the pain of a cavity or a tooth that needs to be pulled, I promise you there are a lot of other problems in that person’s mouth, so maybe they’ll get that one extraction that day and thank God that they have that availability. But what happens to the rest? It doesn’t go away because you extract one tooth,” she said 

“If we could increase our access to care, especially in the prevention and area or the early phases of a cavity where it doesn’t have to get into a crown or a root canal or an extraction. If we could do that, we could stay ahead of this and do better.’