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She was toothless; her argument wasn't

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published April 11, 2007

PORT RICHEY - Betty Eldridge mailed her teeth first-class to Tallahassee. That was more than a year ago, and she's seen them only once since.

Not that she missed them.

"Without a doubt they are the worst set of dentures I have ever seen," she wrote the dentist who made them, "and I've seen lots."

Eldridge is 71. She suffers no fools, harbors few unspoken opinions. She feels indignation, and acts on it. Submitting her dentures and a complaint to the state Department of Health was such an act.

But righteousness requires certain sacrifices, and Eldridge has spent the last year believing her sacrifice was this: no new teeth until the resolution of her complaint.

This has meant mashed potatoes, rice, twice-cooked chicken nuggets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Again and again and again. For a year - and, she learned this week, for no good reason.

* * *

The year of mushy meals started back in late 2005, when Eldridge got her last nine bottom teeth pulled. She had worn upper dentures for nearly 40 years but now needed lower dentures as well.

Denture sets can be expensive, running as high as $1,500 to $2,000. But Eldridge, who lives in subsidized housing, gets about $640 a month in Social Security and disability. She has Medicaid coverage, which will pay for one set of dentures "per the lifetime of the recipient," according to a Medicaid handbook.

She went to Dr. Qayyum Khambaty in New Port Richey, one of the few area dentists who accepts Medicaid. His notes said the dentures that he made for Eldridge were a good fit, Department of Health records show. He told Eldridge to call if she needed more adjustments.

The next month, she did. The dentures were "loose and uncomfortable," the state documents say. The dentist adjusted them and told her to call if they still needed work.

But Eldridge never returned. She took the new dentures out and used her old upper set. She had nothing for the bottom.

"I'm not going to keep going back and back and banging my head against the wall," Eldridge said. "He ran across the wrong woman."

She packed the new dentures in a cardboard box and, as she puts it, "shipped them suckers up to Tallahassee."

* * *

The Department of Health's prosecution unit eventually ended up with Eldridge's teeth. Last May, the department had a dentist expert conduct a clinical examination to see how the dentures fit Eldridge's mouth.

That expert found that the dentures were "substandard" and "could not be corrected with adjustments," says the Department of Health documents. That exam was the last time Eldridge saw her teeth.

In October, the department issued an administrative complaint against Khambaty. The Board of Dentistry, which has the authority to impose penalties or accept a settlement, has not yet heard the matter.

Khambaty declined to say much because the case has not been resolved. He has been in business for 30 years and has no record of prior complaints against him.

But he said notice of the investigation came as a shock. He said he thought Eldridge would return if she had problems.

"She never gave me a chance," he said.

* * *

So what happens when your teeth are in state custody?

Eldridge said she was told by at least two people who work with the Department of Health that Medicaid would not pay for replacement dentures until the case was resolved.

"That's what I was told, that Medicaid wouldn't pay for it twice," she said.

And without the money to pay out of pocket, she's made do. She cooks frozen chicken tenders first in the microwave, then in the oven. She uses her fingers to push any tough pieces against her top dentures, to simulate grinding. She's waited.

But state officials said in interviews this week that Eldridge did not need to go without dentures while her case works its way through the system.

Patients can apply for replacement dentures before Department of Health cases are resolved, said Shelisha Durden, a spokeswoman with the state Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Florida's Medicaid program.

So who told Eldridge she'd have to make do without teeth? Nobody from the Department of Health, according to spokeswoman Lauren Buzzelli.

Buzzelli said one state worker with whom Eldridge spoke said she only repeated Eldridge's question about getting new dentures back to her.

The worker, Buzzelli said, was trying to "clarify" the question, not confirm it.

"There has been a miscommunication," Buzzelli said.

"What?" said Eldridge, when told what officials said. "They're trying to get out of it and wring it around a different way. If I'd had any idea I could get a set of teeth, I would've already gotten them."

And so Eldridge got on the phone again this week, this time armed with new information and a new phone number.

By late afternoon Monday, she said a woman with Agency for Health Care Administration had offered assistance in finding another dentist who takes Medicaid.

That may take some time. But Eldridge knows what it means to wait.

"You know government, they're not in a big hurry," she said. "They've got teeth."

Jodie Tillman can be reached at 727 869-6247 or jtillman@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 11, 2007, 08:32:19]