"Small Smiles", a national chain with offices in Colorado Springs, Denver and Pueblo, will be featured today in a "20/20" report about questionable practices.
Small Smiles, which serves mostly children on Medicaid, has come under fire in other media reports for restraining kids, not allowing parents to be present with them, and doing unnecessary procedures to get Medicaid reimbursements.
Small Smiles Dental Centres under fire for mistreating kids
http://www.gazette.com –
Dental Care for Underserved Children
Anonymous 2 years 50 weeks 1 day 18 min ago
Barely mentioned in the recent media coverage is that Small Smiles and other clinics like it are serving millions of low-income children every year who can't find dental care anywhere else. The reason? Because only 1 in 5 dentists will treat kids on Medicaid.
Also, most of what ABC reported last night is information that is more than 1 year old. The clinics that operate in South Carolina, Maryland and the District of Columbia, for example, all allow parents to be with their children while they receive treatment.
What is needed is more in-depth coverage about why so many dentists refuse to treat kids from low-income families in the first place, and what efforts can be made by the dental health community to educate parents about the dangers of tooth decay (which is more prevalent among low-income kids than among their more affluent peers).