CASPER DENTIST SEES RUIN CAUSED BY METH ABUSE

CASPER -- A Casper dentist choked up on Wednesday as he described his
experience treating patients with "meth mouth."

"I was ignorant of real life," said Dr. Lowell Dawson. He started
providing dental care for the poor and uninsured at the Community
Health Center of Central Wyoming two years ago after a career in
pediatric dentistry.

Speaking at the 3rd Annual Methamphetamine Awareness Conference in
Casper, Dawson said smoking methamphetamine and the lifestyle that
goes with it are ruinous to users' teeth, gums and jawbone.

Chemicals in meth eat away at the teeth. The drug also creates
cravings for sweets and sodas that exacerbate dental problems. And
Dawson said that often methamphetamine users aren't concerned with
brushing and flossing and don't have the money for dental care.

More than 700 people attended the start of the two-day conference, at
which experts were scheduled to discuss strategies for treating
addiction and other aspects of the drug epidemic.

Dawson showed examples of "meth mouth," showing pictures of rotted,
rubbery teeth and gums. He said that in many cases, patients who
visit the clinic have teeth that are too damaged to save, leaving
dentists no choice but to pull them out.

"It's a nightmare for a dentist, for his assistant, and you can
imagine what it's like for the patient," Dawson said. "The normal
pain medication usually will not even approach the amount of pain.
It's horrible for them."

State-provided insurance for poor children includes dental care, but
only provides adults with two extractions per year, Dawson said. He
said it doesn't pay for fillings or dentures.

A person with rotting teeth or no teeth has a much harder time
finding work and may go back to using drugs, Dawson said.

"There is very little sympathy, very little understanding for the
adult," Dawson said.

Adult dental care has become too expensive for the Community Health
Center to subsidize, Dawson said.

Since opening in 2003, he said the center has written off two-thirds
of all dental treatment, according to the center's Web site.

"I can only see so many patients and do it for nothing," Dawson said.
"The City of Casper needs to be paying something into the CHC. The
CHC cannot do it on their own. We need $200,000 right now to continue
the same level of care we've been doing."

Susan Cummings with the Casper Re-Entry Center, a Casper treatment
center for incarcerated drug addicts, was at Wednesday's program. She
said her program has also exhausted its dental budget.

Cummings said one inmate scheduled to graduate from the program next
week has an abscessed tooth. She said she's checking with the state
prison at Rawlins to see if he can be helped there.

"That's what we look at every day," Cummings said.