I got this in the mail today:
2006 Biggest Health Threat to the United States - US Dentistry...Gosh, I have heard a lot of things, but I never knew that dentists were behind it all. Wow.
Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
Monday, May 22nd, 2006
The US Health Care System, rated 72nd in quality, but number one in cost - worldwide, is known, by government reports, to be the NUMBER ONE KILLER of Americans - ahead of heart disease, cancer, and strokes. There is no argument against facts.
But what is up for speculation are the REASONS why this is so. No one I know of (government agencies, think tanks, etc.) has taken the time to describe, and rate, the reasons why US citizens are being so short-changed.
It is easy to point fingers at the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Hospitals, health insurance companies, etc...
But what if there is an industry, completely trusted by the public, that knowingly, and intentionally, is causing significant harm to America's health?
There is one. It is called "Official dentistry" and I believe that this entity, by itself, is the number one problem in American health care.
Let me tell you why I think so...
The Self-Serving Dental Bureaucracy - "Official dentistry" is not now, and has not been for some time, about Dentists or dentistry. It is about the Dental Bureaucracy protecting the IMMENSE CASH FLOW FROM OUTSIDE SOURCES, into that bureaucratic system. That huge amount of cash sets "Official dentistry's" priorities, and THOSE PRIORITIES do not serve the needs of America's Dentists, and certainly not the needs of the American public. Dentists, within the system, have little, or no, control over what happens in American Dentistry.
Simply, "Official dentistry" is controlled by those that write the checks to that bureaucracy. For instance, forty-two percent of the ADA's annual income is from "Product Endorsement." And, to my knowledge, that 42% DOES NOT INCLUDE the money "Official dentistry" gets from the US fertilizer industry.
The fertilizer industry? Did I say "The fertilizer industry?"
Yup, that's exactly what I said. And, that's not all. There are FOUR reasons I think "Official Dentistry" is the number one US health care problem. All of those reasons will shock and surprise you...
