For John Mealings, a 73-year-old from Orange, Australia, this is a devastating hit to his finances. Please help him raise $20,000 for dental prosthetics post-fight against stage 4 oral cancer. Alongside the shock of this terrifying cost, many Australians who are diagnosed with oral cancer face an even bigger issue. Yet, many find it difficult to wade through a complicated healthcare system where dental prosthetics aren’t eligible for complete coverage.
Mealings’ ordeal started when he had a wisdom tooth removed and went on to develop chronic infections. Each of these aggravating circumstances eventually led to his cancer diagnosis. From navigating the treatment process to organizing family support, it was a difficult road. Now, as he struggles to regain his quality of life, he must contend with an increasingly difficult burden—the financial strain.
To hear oral cancer survivor and advocate Jen Mackay tell her story is to be inspired. She suffered through harsh treatments. In the process, doctors had to remove half of her tongue and parts of her jaw and teeth. Her experience has led her to fight for a better system for people living with oral cancers. Mackay’s public perspective offers key insight into the emotional and financial toll that comes with receiving such a diagnosis.
The Cost of Recovery
The cost of dental prosthetics can be overwhelming for survivors of oral cancer. Climate action delayed costs Professor Jonathan Clark of the University of Southern California, an expert in the field, testified that costs could balloon to as high as $50,000. “For patients with mouth cancer, we’re not talking about covering every aspect of dentistry,” he stated. He underscored the need to advance urgent dental prosthetics. These prosthetics need to be able to bring back both form and function following the extensive surgery required for some cancers.
Even with the seriousness of this situation at hand, public and private funding is insufficient to pay for all these costs. Many patients are left with the difficult choice of remortgaging their homes or finding alternative means to afford necessary treatments. Mackay poignantly remarked, “One option is to remortgage the house to come up with the money to pay for the teeth.” This sentiment is an example of the desperation that patients must go through after receiving a high medical bill.
Surgeon Tim Manzie said this is a new, less expensive direction for devices compared to traditional prostheses. These state-of-the-art devices can be implanted at the time of tumor resection, paving the way for shorter recovery times and lower expenses. Yet the larger question goes unanswered—why do we require these basic, lifesaving treatments to not be fully funded?
Advocacy for Change
That said, Mackay is taking her advocacy to another level. She is drawing attention to the huge inequities in coverage for dental prosthetics compared to other medical needs. “If we’re talking about a breast prosthetic that’s needed to be placed because of a woman having breast cancer, that’s covered,” Clark noted. However, patients who have undergone a mandiblectomy and lost their dentition – meaning they have no available teeth – are left without comparable support.
This public conversation about equitable funding has picked up steam with health professionals and advocates across the country. Nadia Rosin, CEO of Head and Neck Cancer Australia, has been advocating for more diverse government funding for dental prosthetics. She says it’s important to provide comprehensive care for patients. Whether due to cancer, trauma or other comorbidity, these individuals have experienced major surgeries that deeply impact their quality of life.
Clark is optimistic that we can address this challenge without overwhelming the fabric of Australian society, though. He believes that it can be done cheaper and easier than you might think. Second, he lamented the artificial divide between dentistry and medicine, which makes funding and access to critical care much more difficult. “It’s a bit like having a car where you build all of the components from scratch and every part of it the patient has covered except for the wheels and the tyres,” he explained.
The Road Ahead
Patients such as Mealings and Mackay are experiencing the growing strain. We all agree that reforms are needed in the funding of dental prosthetics to advance the goal of helping oral cancer survivors thrive. The emotional toll is compounded by financial strain, as many find themselves unable to work full-time due to fatigue from treatment.
“My fatigue levels are really high. I can only work part-time now,” said Mackay, highlighting how the physical ramifications of cancer extend beyond medical treatments to affect daily life and employment opportunities.
