Rural areas in critical need for dental care
AS A dental hygienist, I was glad to see your recent article “Dentistry aides focus on state’s rural areas” that highlighted the critical need to increase access to dental care for people who live in New Mexico’s small towns and rural areas.
As your article indicated, New Mexico is facing an oral health crisis. The data show that many rural and underserved communities face a shortage of dental care providers. As a result, the widespread presence of dental disease is worse in New Mexico than any other state. Kids can’t live up to their full potential if they live with the pain of untreated dental disease.
Oral health is key to overall health, so it’s critical to make sure that everyone in our state has access to regular preventive dental care as well as treatment for tooth decay and other problems. Introducing community dental health coordinators as part of the dental team is a step in the right direction — but we need to do more.
Dental therapists are highly trained dental hygienists who can perform routine and preventative services in a role similar to other mid-level professionals such as physician assistants in medicine. Like dental health coordinators, dental therapists are communitybased professionals who specialize in preventive care. The key difference is that they are also trained to provide basic treatment if dental disease is detected.
A recent study found that the introduction of dental therapists into remote Alaska Native communities has had a stunning impact on oral health. In many of these communities, the need for restorative care, like fillings, has decreased because dental therapists have been so effective at preventing tooth decay from occurring in the first place. This study comes on the heels of research on the effectiveness of dental therapists in Minnesota, which showed that dental therapists decreased patient wait times and served their communities.
We need to do everything we can to find long-term solutions that allow people across our state to have access to regular preventative dental care and treatment for a wide scope of dental issues. Adding dental therapists who are dental hygienists to dental teams would be another big step toward making that a reality. GLENELLE G. BUTLER Albuquerque