NAVIGATE THE BOOK
Head & Neck Cancer: Teeth Not Included
By Dwight David Johnson
A Survivor’s Oral Injury Journey Through the U.S. Cancer Care System
A Booklet. A Blueprint. A Billing Code Wake-Up Call.
“We treat the head. We treat the neck. But the mouth didn’t make the list.”
THE STRUCTURE: A SYSTEMIC INJURY, PAGE BY PAGE
This booklet mirrors the layered reality of survivorship — medical, emotional, and institutional.
It is not a chronology of illness. It is a structured dissection of neglect: how head and neck cancer treatments, while life-saving, systematically destroy oral health — and how the system avoids responsibility.
Each section is focused, factual, and meant to provoke action.
BOOK STRUCTURE & READER ROADMAP
Built as a guidebook for patients, caregivers, policy advocates, and providers, this booklet unfolds in six core sections and three appendices, plus a closing chapter with bold institutional demands.
Section 1: The Price of Survival
The foundational narrative: radiation and chemo saved the body but quietly destroyed the mouth. The cost of living becomes a permanent injury.
Section 2: How the Mouth Got Left Behind
A historical exposé: how dentistry was structurally severed from medicine. From Medicare’s birth to modern silos, the mouth became an orphan of care.
Section 3: A Predictable Collapse
Personal timeline: tooth fractures, missed oversight, and the silent unraveling. A lived case study in what happens when no one is assigned to monitor oral damage.
Section 4: The Fix That No One Knows About
A breakthrough ignored: CMS Transmittal 13029 allows Medicare to cover dental injury from medical treatment — but institutions remain silent, disorganized, or unaware.
Section 5: Fragmentation by Design
An insider’s look at the system: cancer centers that treat organs but ignore mouths, patient hand-offs that drop crucial care, and a culture that confuses billing with healing.
Section 6: “Make the Mouth Part of the Body?”
The philosophical pivot: we don’t just need new codes — we need new consciousness. A system that treats the body as parts will always miss the person.
APPENDICES: THE EVIDENCE FILES
Appendix A: Medicare Dental Coverage Summary
CMS Transmittal 13029, covered conditions, ICD/CPT codes, and real-world billing pathways.
Appendix B: Patient Case Summary
A chronological, documented look at Johnson’s oral injury, HBOT approval, and institutional neglect.
Appendix C: Historical Timeline – The Oral Divide
From 1800s dentistry to Medicare’s policy exclusions — a timeline of how the mouth was left behind.
FINAL CHAPTER: “This Is the Bill, Now Here’s the Demand”
This is where the survivor becomes the reformer. The closing chapter offers 10 bold, achievable recommendations to:
Reform cancer care protocols
Hold institutions accountable
Fully integrate dental injury into medical aftercare
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
Survivors navigating post-treatment injury
Cancer centers seeking compliance and integrity
Policymakers and CMS contractors implementing Transmittal 13029
Dentists, oncologists, and oral surgeons seeking unified protocols
Advocates fighting for systemic accountability