Older Americans with oropharyngeal and oral cancers face high medical costs but are missing out on needed dental care, according to a new study by Associate Professor Onur Baser and colleagues. The study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, examined insurance claims from 2013–2024 for more than 100 million commercially insured adults and 7 million Medicare beneficiaries to track prevalence, health care spending and dental use among people with oropharyngeal and oral cancers. The researchers found that while these patients experienced serious treatment-related oral complications, they had fewer annual dental visits than similar adults without cancer in both Medicare and commercial plans.
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