Oral Health Matters in Bending the Cost Curve

• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Author: Uma Kelekar
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.240
• Date: 01 September 2017

Oral Health Matters in Bending the Cost Curve

Uma Kelekar

While there is suff‌icient evidence of an association between oral health and overall health, little is

discussed in terms of the cost savings that can be realized by exploiting this linkage. Evidence of

costs and savings generated from providing oral care to several populations is garnered from the

scholarly literature to demonstrate a few strategies that can help policy makers in realizing these

savings.

KEY WORDS: savings, oral care, costs

Oral Health-Care Costs

While rising health-car e costs take center stage fo r discussion among

policymakers, there ha s been little considera tion of dental costs ove r the years.

However, with improved ac cess to oral care under the A ffordable Care Act

among some groups such as chil dren, it might be timely to as sess the economic

benef‌its linked with oral care. Here, I review the literature that discuss es costs

and potential savings ari sing from oral care among di fferent segments of the

United States’ population.

In 2012, the National Health Expenditure Account reported the total dental

expenditure to be approximately $110 billion representing 4 percent of the overall

health-care spending (Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services [CMS], 2013).

Almost 90 percent was spent privately, specif‌ically by commercial insurance or

out-of-pocket. Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP programs together accounted for the

remaining 10 percent of the total expenditure.

Direct dental costs cover routine conditions like dental caries or periodontitis,

dentures, as well as some treatments associated with oral diseases such as mouth

cancers. Annually, approximately 40,000 oral cancer cases are detected in the

United States (SEER Database, 2015). Jacobson et al. (2012) estimated the average

cost of treating oral cancer during the f‌irst year of diagnosis to be approximately

$80,000. Additionally, synonymous with productivity losses, there are indirect

costs associated with any disease. Gift, Reisine, and Larach (1992) using the 1989

National Health Interview Survey data, reported a loss of approximately

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2017

377

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.240

#2017 Policy Studies Organization