The title of this post may seem a little distant. How can the lack of dental care for 85 percent of veterans from the Department Of Veterans Affairs, keep them from finding work? People work through dental pain all of the time.

But we must dig deeper into the work “finding”.

As I’m currently experiencing through my own dental challenges, it’s very difficult to communicate with when you have oxygen shooting into a mouth injury sending shockwaves of pain through your skull.

And there are few more important circumstances where you must communicate clearly than a job interview. You must be able to explain your ability and your upward to potential to listening employers.

Sometimes its not even pain. Sometimes it’s a speech impediment. You sound weird. And that weirdness affects your confidence, which can also be a false red flag to employers.

Sadly, what missing access to dental care may say during job interviews doesn’t have to make any noise. It tells employers that you don’t have your life straight. It tells them that you may have to miss work if your injury gets worse. Or even if you can start earning, it tells them that you’ll have to miss work to have procedures done.

It really is a tragedy when veterans can actually be hindered by missing care when they’re trying to lift themselves up despite the pain they’re experiencing.

Lack of dental care isn’t just about comfort. It’s about earning a living. And as long as we’re not taking care of our veterans we’ll continue to put them at a disadvantage.