More than a million New Mexicans have trouble finding a dentist. Health Action New Mexico thinks it has a solution to solve that problem. The non-profit has been pushing for several years to bring dental therapy to the state. It believes dental therapists could solve the state’s dental health crisis.
According to a 2013 report by the New Mexico Health Workforce Committee, there's one dentist for every two thousand people in the state. The therapists would have a role similar to nurse practitioners, except they'd help the dentist. But the state legislature would first have to allow them to practice here.
"So it allows New Mexico's Dental Board to license dental therapists to practice, and you have to be licensed to practice in order to provide these services,” said Pamela Blackwell, the Project Director for Dental Health for Health Action New Mexico.
The dental therapists would be mid-level providers. They would fill cavities, clean teeth and adjust dentures. Dentists would supervise them from afar.
"What dental therapists do is they allow dentists to extend their reach to the Medicaid population -the 160,000 new people on Medicaid,” said Blackwell.
Blackwell said only 50 percent of the state's dentists are Medicaid providers. Mary Altenberg, the Executive Director of Community Dental Services, says dental therapists would be helpful at her clinic.
"We'd be able to do more children. We'd be able to do more outreach. We'd increase the number of people seen by limiting dentists to the more complex surgical procedures to which they are experienced and educated for, and leave the simpler procedures to the mid-level providers, " said Mary Altenberg.
Health Action New Mexico's proposal would also allow for community colleges to teach dental therapy.
“We need more dentists to see patients who have Medicaid. We always need charity care. But, the dental therapist model, I believe, will have the biggest impact for the largest number of people in need,” said Altenberg.
Dental therapy is a fairly new field. Currently, only Maine, Alaska, and Minnesota grant licenses for them to work.
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