Wait for dental care grows longer in Mass.

Two years into Massachusetts’ bold health-care experiment, its early success in expanding dental coverage may be threatened by a shortage of dentists willing to treat newly insured patients.

Since getting free or subsidized dental coverage in 2006, more than 200,000 low-income adults have climbed into Massachusetts dentists’ chairs for work on their long-neglected teeth. But increasing numbers of patients are expected to seek care, and advocates fear the wait for appointments, now three months at community health center clinics, will grow.

The problem: just 17 percent of dentists statewide have been willing to see these newly insured patients, despite reforms intended to boost their ranks. Some of these dentists limit the number of state-subsidized patients they will treat.

Dentists say the state’s reimbursement rate for adults covers only about half their costs, and they also cite payment delays and burdensome paperwork.

As part of the health-care law’s goal of extending insurance to nearly everyone, dental benefits were restored to roughly 540,000 low-income adults who had lost nearly all dental coverage under Medicaid budget cuts in 2002. The law also expanded eligibility, prompting another 140,000 to sign up.

Timing important for shots to be effective

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one of four children who were 2 years old had either missed doses of vaccines or were given doses at the wrong age or interval.

Vaccinations administered at the wrong time are less effective, health officials say. Ask your health practitioner for an exact schedule of every necessary vaccination, and put it where you’ll check it regularly.

Facts about prostate cancer

What to know about prostate cancer

•Early detection, through a yearly blood test and digital rectal exam, can increase survival rates.

•Men with a family history (a father, brother or uncle with the disease) are more than twice as likely to contract it than men without a family history.

•Black men are at highest risk for prostate cancer.

•A high-fat diet and obesity can increase your risk.

•More than three-quarters of prostate cancers are found in men aged 65 and older.

•Many more men get a diagnosis of prostate cancer than die from it.

Source: National Cancer Institute

Exercise doesn’t affect depression

Many people are sure that exercise improves their mood, and studies have suggested exercise is almost as effective as antidepressants in relieving symptoms of depression. A new study has found that even though people who exercise are less likely to be depressed or anxious, it is probably not because they exercise.

Dutch researchers studied 5,952 twins, as well as 1,357 additional siblings and 1,249 parentsThey studied exercise patterns and used well-validated scales to uncover symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Studying twins helped researchers to distinguish between genetic and environmental effects, and they found that the association of exercise with reduced anxious and depressive symptoms could be explained genetically: People not inclined to exercise also tend to be depressed. One does not cause the other.

— Journal wire reports