Veteran fights for dental care after tooth broken during surgery at VA hospital

When he came to in the hospital, Army veteran Brian Carter was struggling to breathe.

He found a piece of something blocking his airway, and after a few moments, he realized it was half of his tooth.

“There was something in my mask,” says Carter. “I grabbed the tooth and put it in my pill bottle.”

Brian had gone into the Orlando VA Medical Center at Lake Nona for a procedure to fix a deviated septum.

He said at some point, part of one of his incisors was knocked out, exposing the root.

Carter has asked the VA to pull the rest of the tooth out, but so far, he has not been able to get help from the VA, which has told him he doesn’t qualify for dental because he is not 100 percent disabled.

“It's very irritating, and now it's pretty sore," said Carter, pointing to where his tooth used to be.  "There is a very simple solution to this problem, but unfortunately for the veteran, it's normally always out of our reach."

Experts said Carter’s specific situation should be covered by the VA since the tooth was knocked out during a covered procedure; however, his experience underscores one area of coverage not provided by the VA to most vets: dental.

Typically, the VA offers dental benefits to vets who are 100 percent disabled, have been a prisoner of war, or developed a dental problem during their service.

In 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) proposed expanding VA benefits to cover dental, but the bill never made it out of the Senate.

This year, a Florida Republican is proposing a pilot program aimed at expanding dental for vets.

“Our veterans have sacrificed so much on behalf of our country, they deserve access to high quality health care, and that includes dental care,” said Gus Bilirakis (R- New Port Richey) in a statement issued along with his bill.  “The VET CARE Act (HR 1749) will get the ball rolling to expand access to dental care for our nation’s heroes, and could result in lower overall health care costs for the VA. Not only is this legislation good for veterans, it’s good for the VA as a whole.”

Rep. Bilirakis is the Vice Chairman of the House VA Committee and is still working to get the bill scheduled for a hearing.

Cox Media Group