The sugary drinks consumed throughout America contribute to, not one, but two health hazards. The first hazard from these sugar-loaded beverages, obesity, has received a lot of press recently. The second, tooth decay, has not gotten as much attention. Tooth decay from sugary drinks knows no geological bounds. Empty soda cans can be found from Florida to Alaska and from Maine to southern California. Toothaches go with these soda cans as an unwelcome guest. Unfortunately the dental profession refuses to meet this dental health epidemic.
While dental decay cover the US with a blanket of pain, there are too few, and too geographically limited, dentists to solve the problem. There is a workable, cost-effective solution to this problem, but dentists and their associations refuse to accept it. The answer is the acceptance and use of Dental Technicians (DT).
Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants have long been accepted as valuable mid-level medical practitioners. They very effectively treat the estimated two-thirds of patients in a doctor’s office who do not need to see a physician. They have treated medical problems like sore throats, earaches, coughs and rashes for decades with efficiency and reasonable cost. Their training also includes an understanding of those medical problems that require the attention of a doctor. NPs and PAs have received the acclaim of the public and, sometimes grudgingly, from doctors.
Dental Technicians play the same valuable role in the dental field as NPs and PAs in the medical field. DTs receive extensive training and are fully qualified to perform fillings and simple extractions, two procedures that are sorely needed, but not readily available in remote corners of this country. Dental problems are widespread, but dentists are not, especially in the wilds of Alaska. In Alaska the great need for DTs overcame the objections and obstructionism of the dental profession and DTs were licensed and went to work to relieve a lot of Alaskan pain.
In the rest of this country dentists have stubbornly refused to give access to DTs. Their argument is the same one discredited long ago that the medical profession used against NPs and DTs – not sufficient training to handle even the simplest of medical problems.
Strip away the rhetoric of dentists and their associations and what you have left is simply protections of their wallets. The need and effectiveness of DTs in Alaska and also in Britain has been proven for years. The question remains how long money given to political campaigns by dentists will prevent the necessary use of DTs in the rest of this country. Next time you or one of your children have a toothache and can’t get an appointment with a dentist, think about how valuable DTs would be in your area