Dental Services

An Innovative Idea for Addressing Inmate Dental Care

Dental care is an increasingly significant and expensive problem, especially with the spread of drug use that can severely affect dental health. Although probably not as critical as medical and mental health problems, dental is still something to be reckoned with.

If a facility is taking inmates to a local dentist (if one can be found who will just pull teeth to relieve pain and not prescribe narcotics afterwards), it will usually require at least one transport officer in a cruiser or transport van, often taking hours to complete.  As a result, too much is being spent for dental care. We offer a flat rate that is based on the average number of inmates seen monthly.

For a very small jail, DHCA may not charge anything for a month in which there are no inmates in need of dental services, but when we do come, a fee will be negotiated for the first inmate and a rate set for each additional one. For larger facilities the fee will be based on the approximate number of inmates seen every month. The fee is not based on the services rendered, but a flat rate. We prefer to include the dental services in our overall contract, but can provide them as a stand-alone service.

Dental complaints may have been ignored in some facilities because it is often inconvenient to get the inmate to a dentist. There is also the belief that bad teeth is a pre-existing condition that does not require attention. These reasons may be why many jails don’t spend much on dental services or are experiencing higher inmate medical costs associated with the required treatment of infections relating to inmates’ bad teeth. As with much in inmate health care, an ounce of prevention often worth a pound of cure.
 

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This site was last updated 07/21/08