PING! to a fine opportunity to discuss dentistry and medicine in an incisive, cutting way...
Posted on 05/11/2007 11:04:15 AM PDT by Wuli
What secret activity went on in the garage of a seemingly friendly, well-liked, balding 60-year-old West Palm Beach man before police surrounded his house and arrested him on two felony charges?
The sheriff's department, the man's neighbors and the man himself - Roger Bean - all agree: The "crime" was making dentures and temporary bridges for grateful customers at a mere fraction of the price.
Instead of $2,000 dentures from a dentist, Mr. Bean's clients got their dentures from him, fitted, for as little as $200.
An anonymous tip supposedly made police aware of Mr. Bean's "crimes." But news reports reveal Mr. Bean's neighbors and customers had no cause for complaint.
Linda Armantrout said "he's the best neighbor we've got." The head of the neighborhood crime watch, Ron St. Mary, said that Mr. Bean is not a criminal because he is "helping the old people who don't have a few dollars," and added, "I think the world of him."
Yet another local resident warned Mr. Bean when she saw the sheriff's detectives coming. She'll be charged with obstruction of justice for having done him the neighborly favor.
Since the customers are happy, and Mr. Bean isn't dealing in anything that stands to harm innocent third parties, like nuclear weapons, why the fuss?.....................
(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...
It can indeed. But so does inadequate dentistry, and it's safe to say that a lot more elderly folks are being driven to open heart surgery by the fact that they can't afford professional dental care, than by any complications that amateur-made dentures could ever cause.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I think green iguana might have been sarcastically referring to the cliche that "marijuana leads to harder drugs" or some such...
This is a big issue in Alaska right now.
No dentists in rural Alaska, so tooth decay is relly bad, esp in the young. Dentl issues can lead to other and sometimes fatal health problems.
Bad water, lots of soda pop and candy = dental crisis.
So, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium folks sent some workers (Dental Health Aide Therapists (DHAT’s)) to training outside of the US, where it is common.
They now perform routine dental work in rural villages. The local ADA folks are having a fit.
More here:
http://wcco.com/local/local_story_031233404.html
http://www.topix.net/forum/med/dentistry/TOSHFI61TE3F5M083 has some interesting comments on dental care for poor folk.
And the offical State view
http://www.astdd.org/bestpractices/pdf/DES02002AKdentalaide.pdf.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Cartelizing via regulatory capture bump. The guild system never died.
This actually killed a guy I went to school with, subsequent to an oral abscess that he did not get treated.
You're right by golly. What scares me is that I'm getting those kinds of things confused. I think they were on on the same night. I remember watching them with my grandfather in his cabin . . . he got one, kind of fuzzy, channel out of Duluth.
PING! to a fine opportunity to discuss dentistry and medicine in an incisive, cutting way...
Gosh, I bet medicine could be a lot cheaper if there were no requirements for safety or training.
It’s like the Kelo ruling, except bite sized.
McGruff says, “Take a bite out of crime!”
Sure, how with no teeth?
HillaryCare would put this guy in jail.
Roger Bean: "Hand what over? What do you want?"
Policeman: "I want the tooth!"
Roger Bean: "You can't handle the tooth!"
Where to begin?
My dentist drives a Porsche, his mechanic drives a Bentley, This guy drives a pinto, his mechanic rides a bicycle.
It’s a cost and effect relationship.
When Bean was interrogated, he is rumored to have told the investigators that they can’t handle the tooth.
If would be a lot cheaper if private-professional services were used to rate, report on, and disseminate information on the quality of “services” provided by the health care industry and its practitioners, instead of turning the system of “law”, via “regulation” of everything, into nothing more than a cartel of so-called “legal” services.
It is truly not done to achieve a certain standard of knowledge and expertise, but to protect an investment that the individual “legal” practitioners think they have made and prevent anyone from having competing with them when that competitor might have achieved an equal level of expertise with less “investment” - expertise which should be measured by the results of the skill demonstrated in the product and not the volume, amount or type of personal input used to obtain that skill.
Apparently, the “denturist” did not have a single dis-satisfied customer - a record I imagine 100% of the “licensed” dentists in his area could not claim.
I think we do use private inspectors in some fields but I have no doubt more could be done.
One unlicensed guy without complaints doesn’t mean you do away with medical qualifications.
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