Cayman dodging dentist, data shows
(CNS): While dentists recommend that we should all be making at least two visits a year to their surgeries, the latest statistics on health related issues in the Cayman Island demonstrate that half of the population did not visit a local dentist at all last year. There were 29,489 visits made to dental clinics, according to the Compendium of Statistics during 2014 but at the end of last year there were 58,238 people living here. This means that at the very least 28,749 people did not go to a dentist on the island in 2014.
The figure is only slightly less than last year, when there were 30,967 visits to a dentists, and slightly more than the 25,921 that visited in 2010, when the national census and ESO surveys began including health behaviours.
The compendium simply recalls the number of visits made and, as some people are likely to be vigilant about their twice yearly check-ups and follow up treatment, many of the 29,489 will be by repeat patients. As a result, the figure for those neglecting their oral health could be much greater than the simple calculation reveals.
Although some people may have travelled overseas to for their dental work or even check-ups, the lack of insurance cover in the basic health plan, which most workers outside of government receive, is the likely cause of so many people dodging the dentist’s chair. In the US the average percentage of adults visiting a dentist in 2013 was, according to the Centre for Disease Control, 61.7% (2013), more than 11% higher than the best case scenario in Cayman.
However, although people living in the Cayman Islands may be ducking out on the dentist, according to the hospital figures 33,360 visits were made to the emergency room during the course of the year, the largest amount since 2010. In addition, more than 355,000 prescriptions were filled for pharmaceutical drugs, a significant increase on the previous four years when the number of prescriptions was between around 277,000 and 288 000.
The big health problem in Cayman, however, remains diseases of the circulatory system, which claimed the lives of over 30% of those who died last year, followed by cancer, which was the cause of death in over 28% of the cases, and diseases of the respiratory system, accounting for 10% of lives lost. The fourth killer in Cayman is unnatural causes, such as murder, car crashes or water related deaths.
But 2014 saw the highest number of health professionals ever on the islands, with 1,170 medical personnel working in both private and government health facilities, up from 884 — no doubt partially attributed to the opening of the Shetty hospital in East End. There are now 294 practicing doctors in Cayman, compared to 207 in 2013, and 411 nurses, up from 340.
Category: Health, Medical Health
It is very hard to pay your health insurance every month and when you have to go to the dentist you are then required to pay them first AND then claim from your insurance company. You actually end up paying twice before you can claim some of your money – after you reach the set deductible.
The law needs to be changed to make it mandatory for the dentist to accept your insurance (once they confirm that you are covered) since it is mandatory for us to have insurance.
Were dentist covered by the ludicrous cap on negligence lawsuits that doctors obtained as part of the sweetheart deal done with Shetty?
It’s a little known fact that the toothbrush was invented in Jamiaca. Anywhere else and it would have been called a teethbrush.
Is this also why we dread the dentist?
11:00…Lincoln and others freed the slaves a long time ago. People like doctors and dentists do not have to work as slaves for free. They can charge for their work. Considering how long it takes a doctor, nurse or dentist to be trained and the expense of their education, people should not feel like they should have the right to have free health care. There is no free lunch. People should work for a wage and people should not want everything for free. Socialism and communism works until you run out of the other guy’s money. Think about it people.
Charity is fine and that is OK for churches and other organizations but it takes money for doctors and hospitals to pay staff, buy medicine and pay electric bills.
True but the American and Cayman system is a complete rip off. Nowhere else in the world does anywhere cost so much and I don’t hear any doctors or dentists complaint about it. I just had a tooth removed at a private dentist in Eastern Europe, high quality service and it cost euro 31 without insurance. That wouldn’t even cover my deductible on my insurance plan in Cayman. So it can be done. Just no one in the health system wants to change it!
That is pretty disgusting, but totally understand with the high cost of a dentist visit. There should be a clinic that the “poor” or those without insurance can visit for at least a cleaning.
I know some of my friends and myself go overseas to see dentist as they are much cheaper than in Cayman. In my case my treatment in Mexico cost $2000 included flight while in Cayman is whooping $7,000 for same treatment!!
Another example of the inanity of the ESO – as the article points out many visit their dentist more than once. What is the correlation between visits to the dentist and population other than garbage in – garbage out.
ah yeah if you gotta wait 7 months for an appointment…..seriously. Not to mention the cost associated for dental in the private sector.
Undoubtedly and like everything else in Cayman, it is becoming less affordable to visit the dentist as people should.
You all pay for food, housing, etc. Why do people expect to get medical and dental care for free. Most people need to be educated in the school system about caring for their bodies by having yearly medical and dental checks. Most people do not have their gums cleaned nor do they floss. These two things can be early preventive medicine and help people from having loose teeth in their 20s and end up pulling their teeth. Fillings and crowns need to be done because when young adults begin the downward spiral of pulling teeth, there begins a shifting of teeth with more gum exposure and more dental disasters. I am Caymanian and my parents never practiced getting dental checks. They lost their teeth at an early age and at least they got dentures. Many folks out there in denial about dental care will end up with heart problems.
People, please just budget for your medical expenses instead of planning a vacation or for a new computer.
pay $1000 a month in health insurance and my max dental cover is $1,200 per year! That barely covers the x-ray. Considering most years that is the ONLY thing I use my health insurance for it doesn’t seem like a very good deal.
Health Insurance is also joke! You pay ridiculously high fees for healthcare and they have so many restrictions on what they will cover and how much.
Not having dental cover previously when I was employed and NO COVER for the last 3 years of unemployment, it has been over 5 years since I have seen a dentist.. Suffering with two cracked/broken teeth for over 4 years, I have no alternative. Having several additional health related issues I have no options either. You can REQUIRE health cover for everyone, but those who cannot afford it and cannot get even the minimum coverage just have to suffer in silence. Already losing a house to foreclosure, what options are there? Soon to be homeless, toothless and God knows what else….
Why are dentists here allowed to say they don’t accept insurance and that you have to pay them directly and then you have deal with your insurance? Nodes anyone know if that is allowed by law?
Where is ESO’s data on health insurance comparative plan costs across the industry?
They are more concerned in preparing the country for income tax by tracking how much money all of the businesses and people earn…
Tax is coming, dat for sure.
If you think foreclosures are rampant now, wait until those new tax bills eliminate what little discretionary spending most families have! With mortgage rates and insurance rates at such ungodly levels, there are going to be a TON of foreclosures when the taxes come off the top of wages that have not risen in decades.At least I will be in good company living in my car very soon…
I can’t find a job paying even HALF of what I earned back in the ’70’s & ’80’s. Cayman is importing poverty what with all the third-world labour willing to work for starvation wages that cannot support a single person, let alone a small family in Cayman.
A recent job advert for a salary of CI $51-55K annually was taken up by a work permit holder, actually being paid only US $18K per year. Do these slave driver employers not think we follow up on job ads to see who got hired and for what pay?? Is it any wonder that persons with “previously clean records” are increasingly coming before the courts? DESPERATE TIMES LEAD TO DESPERATION CRIMES! Cayman is manufacturing criminals at an alarming rate, all in the guise of cheap foreign labour.
Thanks to Cayman’s own government’s work permit revenue stream.
We’ve been sold out here folks, by OUR OWN people we elected.