Many veterans won’t know it until it’s too late, but 85 percent of us aren’t eligible for dental care from the Department Of Veterans Affairs and that’s very dangerous.

Because dental troubles can happen suddenly and be very painful. I know it. I’m going through it right now.

The ones who don’t know will suffer some kind of accident and call the VA. And after getting bounced around the switchboard, they’ll finally get to the dental clinic who will give them the bad news. They deliver the troubling message so often it comes off robotic and it hurts even worse.

If the veteran is doing well and has high hopes for his savings, then those hopes are dashed.

The sad news is that because the military didn’t teach us how to manage money, its also very possible we don’t even have savings. And then that’s when the downward spiral starts.

And then there are those who get the dental emergency when they’re at their worst. They might already be struggling to make ends meet. And then they’re stuck with a massive dental bill and it pushes them over the edge.

If they’re trying to pull themselves up from the pit, then dental problems push them right back to the bottom.

Sadly, a lot of them can’t recover from a setback of that magnitude.

It shouldn’t be this way. Not after we’ve been there for our country during the good times and the bad.

Yet, this is the reality.

The solution is clear. We need better dental care for our veterans.