When my father’s father died of pneumonia, the nurse tried in vain to wrest his teeth out of his mouth. They were so perfect, she was sure they were false.
My father’s choppers were pretty perfect, too. Laughing and smiling, he flashed them, I think, with a bit of pride. He brushed them regularly, I remember. Swish, swish.
My mother’s teeth seemed perfect as well, but were, alas, quite false. After her third baby during the Great Depression, with not enough money for calcium supplements or dental care, she visited the dentist and had them all pulled out in one fell swoop.
My teeth? Somewhere between those two extremes. A few years ago, I declined to have $3000-worth of work done in my mouth, and took a cheaper option, just $858. My dentist, an idealistic new graduate, was aghast. She warned me not to chew with the tooth so inadequately repaired.
What a hard decision that was. It involved facing my mortality. I had just crossed the 70s threshold. How many years did I have to live? My insurance company chose to no longer offer travel insurance after I turned 70. In the same manner, I pondered my life expectancy vs. the cost of dental care. At what age is it no longer worth the expense to repair your teeth?
NEW DENTAL CARE PLAN
The answer depends quite a bit on the contents of your bank account. Health Canada tells us that one in four Canadians avoids visiting the dentist because of the expense. So, at last, our health care system is putting money into our mouths, in the form of a new Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP).
The new plan targets persons without private dental insurance, who were residents of Canada in 2022 for tax purposes, and whose tax returns show they have an annual family income of less than $90,000. For all the details, visit Health Canada’s website, or simply google “Canadian Dental Care Plan.”
Unlike private insurance companies, its approach is anti-ageist. Coverage was rolled out in December 2023 for persons aged 87 or older; this month for those aged 77 to 86; in February for persons aged 72 to 76; and those aged 70 to 71 in March. And so on. Persons with a valid Disability Tax Credit, and children under 18, are eligible starting in June.
What do you do to get on the plan? If you are 70 or older, you should get a letter instructing you how to apply by telephone to Service Canada. In May, an online application portal will open. Once eligibility is determined, Service Canada shares your information with Sun Life, the contracted service provider. Sun Life will send you a welcome package giving coverage details, a member’s card, and the start date of the coverage.
COVERAGE
Yes, the start date is not, I repeat NOT, the date you phone Service Canada; you will be able to “start seeing an oral health provider as early as May 2024, starting with seniors.” To be covered by the plan, your visit to the dentist’s office must be after your coverage start date provided in Sun Life’s welcome package.
Now then, exactly what will be covered? Preventive services, including teeth cleaning. Diagnostic services, such as exams and x-rays. Fillings. Root canals. Complete and partial removable dentures. Periodontal services. And oral surgeries, including extractions.
Some of these services, says Health Canada’s website, will only become available in the fall of 2024. But we don’t know yet which ones.
HOW IT WORKS
Dentists, denturists, dental hygienists, and dental specialists may choose to enroll directly with Sun Life as participating CDCP oral health providers. If they do, they can bill the CDCP directly, so you yourself will not have to seek reimbursement.
Like Quebec’s medication insurance, CDCP coverage may require a co-payment by the patient. If your annual family net income is between $80,000 and $89,999, you pay 60 percent. If it is between $70,000 and $79,999, you pay 40 per cent. If less than $70,000, no co-payment is required.
But. Here’s the detail where a devil could be hiding: “Oral health providers are encouraged to follow the CDCP established fees, which are not the same as the provincial and territorial fee guides, so their patients do not face additional charges at the point of care.”
So what’s covered are the CDCP-approved fees. I wonder… will my dentist charge just those fees, or will I be surprised by an additional charge over and above the amount covered?
Don’t get me wrong: I am grateful for the Canadian Dental Care Plan! I really want it to work.
AND WHY?
Oral health matters. It is related to a host of other health problems, respiratory disease and diabetes among them, says Health Canada. Then one last item chills my blood: “Individuals with gum diseases are two to three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those with healthy gums.”
PennMedicine.org corroborates this point. “Researchers suspect that bacteria present in gum disease can travel throughout the body, triggering inflammation in the heart’s vessels and infection in heart valves.” Research continues, but “points to a link between gum disease and inflammation that can precede heart attacks, strokes, and sudden vascular events.”
My teeth almost fell out, and they’re not even false.
Excuse me, I gotta go brush my teeth. And gums! Swish, swish!
CHURCHES
United. Sunday services are 9:30 a.m. at the Trinity United Church (Cookshire), and 11 a.m. at the Sawyerville United Church. Info: 819-889-2838. For pastoral care, call Rev. Spires at 819-452-3685.
Baptist. Sunday Services are in French at 9 a.m. and in English at 11 a.m., at the Sawyerville Baptist Church, 33 rue de Cookshire. For information, please contact Pastor Michel Houle at 819-889-2819.
Anglican. No services in Cookshire. To find services in the deanery, check the schedule at deaneryofstfrancis.com/calendar/. Info: 819-887-6802, or quebec.anglican.ca.
Do you have news to share? Call 819-640-1340 or email rawrites@gmail.com by January 22 for publication January 31.