Maryland has improved dental care since the widely publicized death of 12-year-old Deamonte Driver from a dental abscess, Gov. Martin O'Malley and other state leaders claimed in a speech last week, according to newspaper reports.
The state spent $2 million in fiscal 2008 to bring dental services to underserved parts of the state, the Washington Post reported. And O'Malley and state lawmakers increased Medicaid reimbursement for dentists at a cost of $14 million, spurring more than 100 additional dentists to participate in the program.
O'Malley gave his speech at Seat Pleasant Elementary School on the second of two days of free checkups by hygienists, and he read to students from a Sesame Street book, titled Ready, Set, Brush, the newspaper reported.
Copyright © 2009 DrBicuspid.com
