Comment by bell-cot
21 days ago
> But you will brush your teeth anyway, and then you apply fluoride topically. It works.
Relatively few of the poor have the disposable income, time, education, and long-term worldview needed to reliably do that.
EDIT: This comment is about America's poor. Though the same applies in much of the world.
Your GDP per capita is 50% higher than ours. You have money for this.
If there's no will to raise up the poor, you it should be straightforward to use the state directly to ensure that everyone is taught how to brush their teeth and ensured to have access to brushes and toothpaste.
I agree with you, but GDP per capita isn't the correct measure here when the bottom 8% in the US has no health insurance compared to Sweden's 0%, which I have to assume because I didn't even find this measured anywhere due to universal healthcare.
While Sweden has free health care, it does not completely include dental care. It's free until you turn 20, after that you pay out of your own pocket. This is to incentivize people to take care of their teeth, instead of not caring and then expecting free replacement of your teeth. One you're 20, you only get a very tiny deductible on your dental care which equates to almost the exactly the cost of a single basic check-up once a year.
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It's a systemic issue that can be solved with one unanimous vote in Congress, that will NEVER happen in the foreseeable future.
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Welcome to the USA, where using the stare to help with dental care would be communism, or socialism, or big government, or violations of freedoms.
I agree with this in an American context. In Sweden, it will be much less true. This difference can also however be attributed to government "interference" with higher taxation supporting better social care for those at the poorer end of the scale.
Freedom comes at a cost, the US and Sweden are paying that cost in different ways.