Dollars and Dentists

Dental care can be a matter of life and death. Yet millions of Americans can't afford a visit to the dentist. Correspondent Miles O'Brien reveals the shocking consequences of a broken safety net in our dental system and the nascent proposals to fix them, including nonprofit dental centers, corporate dental chains, and financing treatment with a health care credit card.

Trinity's grandmother says that over two years she called 10 dentists for appointments, but because only 10 percent of Florida's dentists accept Medicaid, the five-year-old finally receives care for her infected teeth under general anesthesia at a hospital - at a cost of $18,000. Only 25 percent of Florida's Medicaid-eligible children get any kind of dental care.