Hey Kentucky, brush your freaking teeth. What do you think this is? England?
All they have to do is move to a big city within 250 miles, get real jobs, and then they can afford to visit dentists ~ oh, yes, and buy toothbrushes and toothpaste!
This traveling dentist is simply encouraging them to stay in those hills and hollows and glory in their poverty and ignorance.
Hey Kentucky, brush your freaking teeth. What do you think this is? England?
. . .the shame of a 14-year-old girl who would not lift her head because she had lost most of her teeth from malnutrition . . .
Seems like this Christmas brought out the worst in some of us.
When my children were growing up they had several friends who had never seen a dentist. Their parents had cable and went out to eat. Having cable was more important than having their kids see a dentist. For many, it’s a matter of choice - not money.
And we don’t have dental insurance. The article mentions it as if it were a human right. We pay as we go. That’s what we did when I was a kid and that’s what we do now.
Hey, notice these folks have money for “sweet drinks” and tobacco, but NOT dentists?? PLEASE!!! No dentist can afford to practice in Appalachia once he or she’s got those big debts, it’s off to the big cities to pay it all off. Now this Dr. Smith must have grants, etc., for his unique mobile dentistry, but I live in Kentucky, and the towns discussed here don’t even have grocery stores, much less dentists. And they buy their “sweet drinks” and tobacco at the gas station/convenience store.
