Oral health care advocates want Massachusetts to authorize a new classification for practitioners of dental medicine to help increase access to care. Their solution would be to create a certification for dental therapists that would be able to provide routine care and create a mid-level practitioner between a dental hygienist and a full-fledged dentist.
The Legislature’s Public Health Committee heard from dentists, dental medicine educators and other health advocates Tuesday about the need for more practitioners in the oral health field.
Dr. Lisa Simon works with some of the state’s poorest populations at safety-net hospitals.
“I’m completely overburdened and so is every other safety-net dentist like myself, trying to treat the emergencies — the worth of the worst,” she said. “If we had another team member who could help us, we’d be meeting patients’ needs before they started suffering.”
But some dentists worry patients won’t be in safe hands with a less-trained dental therapist performing tooth extractions or filling cavities.
Massachusetts Dental Society president Edward Swiderski says the creation of another dental-practitioner class is not the answer for patient’s lack of care. Swiderski told WGBH News that 95 percent of MassHealth patients live within five miles of a dentist who accepts the Medicaid insurance. Patients, Swiderski said, need to come to existing dentist’s offices, of which Massachusetts has many.
“We just don’t support this kind of change. We don’t think it’s right for the people of Massachusetts, because there’s dentists all around and we’re all happy to see people,” Swiderski said.
The bill has been failed the gain traction in the Legislature over the years, but supporters hope it comes up for a vote this session.
