Dental Therapists: Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Underserved Children

Disparities in dental health care that characterize poor populations are well known. Children suffer disproportionately and most severely from dental diseases. Many countries have school-based dental therapist programs to meet children's primary oral health care needs. Although dental therapist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 2014-06, Vol.104 (6), p.1005-1009
Main Authors: FRIEDMAN, Jay W, MATHU-MUJU, Kavita R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alaska
Associations
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child And Adolescent Health
Children & youth
Community Health
Dental care
Dental Care for Children - economics
Dental Care for Children - methods
Dental Care for Children - organization & administration
Dental health
Dental/Oral Health
Dentistry
Dentists
Education
Facial bones, jaws, teeth, parodontium: diseases, semeiology
General aspects
Government, Law, and Public Health Practice
Health care policy
Health facilities
Health participants
Health Policy
Health Professionals
Health Service Delivery
Health Services Accessibility - organization & administration
Healthcare Disparities - organization & administration
Humans
Inner city
Medicaid
Medical sciences
Minnesota
Miscellaneous
Non tumoral diseases
Opportunity costs
Oral hygiene
Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology
Population
Public health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
School Health Services - organization & administration
Schools
Scope of practice
Secondary schools
Social Justice
Therapists
Therapy
United States - epidemiology
Vulnerable Populations
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Summary:Disparities in dental health care that characterize poor populations are well known. Children suffer disproportionately and most severely from dental diseases. Many countries have school-based dental therapist programs to meet children's primary oral health care needs. Although dental therapists in the United States face opposition from national and state dental associations, many state governments are considering funding the training and deployment of dental therapists to care for underserved populations. Dental therapists care for American Indians/Alaska Natives in Alaska, and Minnesota became the first state to legislate dental therapist training. Children should receive priority preference; therefore, the most effective and economical utilization of dental therapists will be as salaried employees in school-based programs, beginning in underserved rural areas and inner cities.
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2014.301895