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Reserve officials seek better dental care

After several years of fillings, root canals and bridges left thousands of reservists nondeployable, military officials say they’re smiling about 2008.

Recent figures put 39 percent of Army National Guard soldiers and 60 percent of reservists in the “no-go” category — which means the troops have not had a check-up or need immediate dental attention.

Of Marine reservists, 23 percent were also no-gos. Air Force and Navy troops have much lower no-go rates.

Army Col. Mark Bodenheim, chief of Army reserve component mobilization and demobilization operations for the Dental Command, said increased command attention has caused those numbers to decrease in 2008, especially for bigger units.

For example, the 39th Brigade Combat Team from Arkansas arrived at Camp Shelby in October 2003 with 13 percent of its troops marked a “go” on their dental records. In January 2008, the same unit showed up at 92 percent dentally ready, said Army Col. David Sproat, chief surgeon for the Army National Guard.

Bodenheim spoke before the House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee April 23.

If people show up with a no-go, they must spend training time getting exams and possibly dental work. From February to May 2007, 23 percent of soldiers who had not had an exam in the previous year needed more than 30 days to attain deployable status.

And problems remain. Active-duty service members get their dental care free, they get paid for the time off work to do so, and they are near military dental facilities. Reserve component troops get one free exam a year, but they must pay for any procedures. And they must take time off work and often drive out of their way to get care.

Capt. Kerry Krause, of the Navy’s Dental Corps, said “go” numbers for the Marines have also gone up but that 70 percent of junior officers leave the Dental Corps after one tour.

“Providing regular exams has become a challenge,” he said

Another potential problem: Nobody likes to go to the dentist, and deploying to Iraq may not be the best motivator.

Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., sat in on the hearing because he wanted to ask Bodenheim questions about payment for dental care. Reserve component troops receive dental care as they prepare to deploy, but when they redeploy, they receive care only if they have a dental emergency.

But Bodenheim said reservists have between one and two hours to get that care as they transition back home because the Dental Corps is too busy to handle them.

So, rather than get their care from the Army, they’re sent to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Buyer argued that VA is getting stuck with the Army’s bill even as VA ensures soldiers are ready to deploy again.

Bodenheim said he agreed that troops should have better care, and that they should have ongoing free care. He said Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker has assigned a committee to look at the issue.

“We need to get out of the idea of just-in-time dentistry,” he said. “That is not good for soldiers.”