What your saying might be true - except that the American Dental Association and most of its state and country constituent dental societies lobby vigorously against any group that is capable of infringing on their lucrative monopoly.
Case in point: Dentists won’t work or live in rural Alaska. As a result, Alaska allowed Dental Health Aide Therapists to do simple dentistry. They were trained in New Zealand. The ADA and the Alaska Dental Society spent $1 million trying to stop them. Thank goodness they lost and now DHATs are allowed to work only in Alaska.
There are many dentist shortage areas in the US where people would welcome Dental Therapists. But organized dentistry is using it’s political might and money to keep them from helping out people who need dental work and at lower prices.
Dental Therapists have worked for decades in other developed countries as successfully and efficiently as dentists.
Besides who among us doesn’t have a dentist-horror story
“Alaska allowed Dental Health Aide Therapists to do simple dentistry. “
Their definition of “simple dentistry” included injecting a drug (local anesthetic) into someone’s body and filling a cavity in a tooth.
That sounds pretty simple...until the patient has an anaphylactic reaction, or goes into v-fib from the epinephrine in the injection. Or perhaps they develop an infection that needs a root canal or antibiotic. Which antibiotic and why? Will it interact with their other medications? What if the patient has reduced kidney function? Can you still use the same dose of antibiotic? What about high blood pressure? Local anesthetic with epi still OK? How much is OK? Is that lesion on the side of the tongue next to the tooth a traumatic ulcer from biting the tongue? Or is it benign migratory glossitis? Or perhaps invasive squamous cell carcinoma?
I went to four years of college, followed by four years of dental school, and took a two-day written National Board exam, followed by a three-day hands-on state board exam. All to do “simple dentistry”.
When you go to your physician’s office, you might be content seeing the nurse or nurse practitioner. I want to see the Dr.
*raising my hand*
I have had nothing but good experiences, personally. I think their rates are pretty reasonable too, considering the education requirements and such. Certainly beats rotting teeth. :-)