Reserve officials seek better dental care

[unhappycamper]

Reserve officials seek better dental care
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 27, 2008 10:08:27 EDT

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.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/04/mililtary_reserves_dental_042708w/

[LiberalFighter]

1. If everyone had dental as well as health care

it would increase our military readiness.

In effect, businesses that don't provide health care are anti-military.

Not that I'm for the Iraq War which I am not.