With an influx of refugees coming from Afghanistan and Ukraine, dentists are seeing more young patients struggling with serious oral health problems caused by years of lack of preventive care.
Dr. Brad Krusky is a pediatric dentist who has many refugee patients in Canada.
“A lot of the kids come in with active infections,” said Krusky who works at the Sayahh City Kids Dental Care office in northeast Calgary. “They’ll come with cavities that we would typically see in children who simply don’t have access to dental care.”
Among the biggest obstacles he has seen are language, education and families struggling to navigate government dental programs.
“Many of these children end up on antibiotics over and over again. A lot of them will end up in the hospital, in the emergency room with worse pain,” Krusky said. “Unfortunately, there are better ways we can deal with this clinically than what is currently done.
“In my opinion, if the funds were not directed at the individual families themselves, but instead injected into the system that already exists, especially provincially, I think we could do much better.”
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Krusky said pediatric dentists spend a lot of time putting out fires and dealing with problems that have gotten so bad they require surgery because of a lack of routine care.
He said refugees are likely to be covered under government plans, but these are typically limited to only emergency care and pain.
Krusky said the dental programs usually only cover emergency care. Dentists have the option of using sedation or general anesthesia, but this comes at a cost to the family. He worries that all it takes is one bad experience at the dentist to turn kids off for life.
He said there are some aspects of the refugee dental program that need some adjustments, such as including coverage of sedation.
“Many of these children are very young. Many of them do not have an understanding of English. They don’t understand what we do or why we do it,” Krusky said. “In the case where a child has a lot more work to do and they are very small, it is very difficult to do that work while they are awake.
“If the program covered the cost of sedation or the cost of the general anesthesia facility, we would be doing these kids a lot more good because not only would we be providing the care, but we would be doing it in a more humane way. ,” Krusky added.
“We do our best to do things that don’t hurt, but even if they don’t hurt, they still feel funny and it sounds funny and it’s just really hard for these kids to understand what we’re doing. Unfortunately, this can create that one negative experience that makes people afraid of the dentist for the rest of their lives.”
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A spokesperson for the Alberta Dental Association said refugees have basic dental coverage with government programs, but that needs to be promoted.
“It’s a real challenge. Of course, they have primary things like food and a place to stay first on their minds. These dental concerns are secondary, but they are important because eventually something will happen,” said Dr. Bruce Yaholnitsky, a Calgary periodontist, said.
Yaholnitsky said dentists in Alberta provide free service, but that is not a sustainable solution in the long term.
“It was the same when the Syrian refugees came to Canada. There were many outreaches by Canadian and Alberta dentists. They do work for free,” Yaholnitsky said. “They are just trying to help people, and often this is overlooked by the government and other stakeholders.
“It’s often held close to the heart and it’s not something you brag about. It’s just something you do because you have to.”
Krusky said the provincial programs currently in place are a little easier to navigate than the federal programs.
He added that there should be funding provided where there are fewer restrictions on how the funding can be used.
“I think it would also be simpler if the reimbursements were done by the dental practice itself as we currently do through private insurance and other government programs,” Krusky said.
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