Expanding the Dental Health Workforce with Dental Therapist- Two Year Post High School Model

Learn how the desire to find a local solution to the problem of access to dental care for Native Alaskan and American Indians in our rural communities has paved the way to a new dental health care provider model in Alaska. The dental health aide program is training local people to provide needed dental services to populations who previously had little or no access to dental care. The training program emphasizes community health, wellness and prevention practices to instill a lifetime of healthy habits. DENTEX is committed to training culturally competent dental care providers who can integrate well with the other healthcare providers in the clinics where they practice. There is strong emphasis on the medical model of dental disease which clearly shows that dental caries is a transmissible, infectious disease which has reached epidemic proportions in many of our rural Alaskan communities. The dental health aide therapist students learn early in their training how to utilize telemedicine, this provides a valuable tool for quality assurance for a provider in an isolated setting with limited training. The Dental Health Aide Therapist practices as part of a team to provide an expansion of services once limited by the difficulty of staffing these remote areas with licensed dentists and hygienist. This session will discuss the process of developing such a program, including successes and obstacles. We will address topics including: funding, recruiting students, curriculum development, political considerations, sustainability, and evaluation.