457. Young asks for help to smile again without pain

Luís Lourenço liked to put braces on her teeth but one first has to be operated to align the jaws intervention that costs about 15 000 euros and that is not reimbursed by the National Health System.
After seeing all the doors close, Luís Lourenço with 21 years of age, resident in the Rossio ao Sul do Tejo, Abrantes, decided to publicly expose your problem to try to find someone who sympathize with the teething problems that plagued . I have a hard time eating because the front teeth (upper and lower) do not come together and ends up injured in the roof of your mouth with the incisors of the lower jaw, reports, accompanied by his sister, Ana.

Luís, who always had many dental problems and complex for their situation, I would like to place an orthodontic appliance but was told by the dentist who came to the lower jaw was very small. According to the certificate issued by a doctor, and who is keen to show, would only be possible to do a corrective surgery in order to expand the bone bases.

I was referred to a plastic surgeon who confirmed that he had a severe deficit bimaxillary and only then could stretch the jaw line and get a skeletal and dental to put the unit reported. The whole process that allowed Luís to smile again without pain is estimated at 15 000 euros.

The problem is that the National Health Service (S.N.S. in portuguese) dentistry is not a share. In September 2007, the president of the Dental Association, Orlando Monteiro da Silva stressed that about half of the Portuguese population was not able to pay for a dental consultation. While there are no dentists in health centers or delivery systems, people will be excluded from oral health, told a news agency Lusa.

Despite having a lot of pain, I know I can come to have serious breathing problems if they do not correct this problem, attests, sad to have seen refused funding from various banking institutions. Also insurance companies refused to make the policy once the problem already exists. My father is retired, my mother is home and I do not give me the loan because I work at a temporary employment agency, said the young man who says his health problem is more than aesthetic, being angry for not being operated via a state hospital, even making their discounts and contributions to Social Security.

We do not have 15 thousand euros or who lend us this amount. We have no other solution and I am worried about my brother to be suffering. This is not a matter of aesthetics but of health. My brother at this moment is to take every day for pain medication, attests Ana Lourenço, 27 years, with the vexed problem that drags on and without having to mortgage anything that might help. For hope and believe accepted to explain the position.

In Portugal, only the autonomous regions have oral health systems to serve users of the S.N.S. Statistics of the time, indicated that in the Azores Autonomous Region there are 19 dentists in regional public health system and the Order provides that, in some years, the Azores are the best indicators of oral health. In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, there is an agreement between the regional health service and private, in the public system to reimburse in part the cost of users who use private dentists.

O Mirante
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Perhaps the Director - General for Health and Minister of Health Ana Jorge had more tact and sense to solve this situation immediately, rather than being to finance the Portuguese TV channels on hundreds of thousands of euros, without bringing out a single act doctor.

Alternatively, put your seats immediately available to those who know better manage public goods in the country.