With little to no job prospects the people living in Appalachia often do not have adequate health insurance. The high levels of consumption of sugary drinks, like Mountain Dew, has led to what is commonly referred to as Mountain Dew mouth. This is when peoples teeth are rotting or missing entirely because of sugary drinks and lack of access to proper dental care.
Nearly two thirds of the people living in West Virginia and Tennessee are missing teeth. For these people overcrowded free dental clinics are the only way for them to receive the dental care they so desperately need. It is not uncommon for people at these clinics to get a full mouth extraction, or the removal of all 32 teeth. Vocativ went to one of these free clinics to talk to the patients and the dentists about this dental epidemic.
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