The U.S. Oral Health Workforce in the Coming Decade Workshop Summary (2009) / Chapter Skim
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9 The International Experience
9 The International Experience
Pages 71-80
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From page 71... ...
Nash, D.M.D., M.S., Ed.D. University of Kentucky Dental therapy is becoming more popular around the world due to the inadequacy of the current dental workforce to provide access to oral health care services for all populations.
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From page 72... ...
The National School for Dental Therapy in Saskatchewan continues to train about 20 dental therapists annually in a 2-year curriculum to care for the Indian and Inuit populations on reserves and in the Northern Terri tories. Today, about 300 dental therapists practice in Canada, primarily in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Canadian north (Nash et al., 2008)
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From page 73... ...
Dental therapy programs emphasize caring for children's oral health and provide comparatively more hours of training in pediatric dentistry than the typical general dentistry curriculum. Internationally, the model for training dental therapists is similar to the 2-year dental hygiene programs in the United States; therefore, a 2-year dental therapy curriculum could be developed and offered alongside associate degree dental hygiene programs, allowing flexibility in choice of study and offering efficiency in that no new infrastructure would be needed.
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From page 74... ...
Health promotion and disease prevention forms the basis of dental therapy, but dental therapists also provide restorative care including pulpotomies, and they extract teeth. Today, dental therapists tend to extract mostly deciduous teeth because the need for permanent e xtractions has decreased.
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From page 75... ...
When dental therapists were limited to school-based, public-sector employment, there were greater differences in the professions due to the dental therapists' being located in schools treating children, whereas dental hygienists were in private practice treating people of all ages. After the legislative changes, the differences became less clear.
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From page 76... ...
declared that regulations should "not impose barriers to the full use of the skills of the whole dental team (general and specialist dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, oral health therapists, prosthetists, dental assistants) in the provision of high-quality, accessible, and affordable dental care for the whole community" (National Advisory Committee on Oral Health, 2004)
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From page 77... ...
focus on the field of removable prosthodontics. In this new system, patients have free access to dental hygienists for traditional preventive care, but require orders from a registered dentist to access their expanded duties for the treatment of the tertiary prevention of caries, including administration of local anesthesia and drilling of cavities.
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From page 78... ...
Pew Center on the States Implementing the Dental Therapy Model in the United States Several participants submitted questions regarding how to implement the dental therapy model in the United States. Nash said a demonstration project should be done wherein an institution integrates their dental hygiene curriculum to include dental therapy.
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From page 79... ...
; she said oral health therapy students are charged the same tuition fees as dental students, but their programs are shorter. Nash added that many international programs are 3-year bachelor's degree programs, and in the United States, dental hygiene directors are considering adding a third year to dental hygiene programs, possibly in collaboration with larger universities.
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