A bill introduced by state Rep. Dennis Roch would finally bring dental care a whole lot closer to home for thousands of people who live in rural New Mexico communities.
As a Clayton resident, population of 2,000, I’m excited. And as a hospital CEO, an employer whose workers have to take a day off to get dental care, and as a father whose kids miss a day of school every time they need to see a dentist and as a patient who waited more than four months to get a wisdom tooth pulled, I’m even more excited.
Lack of dental care is a real problem here.
We have good access to medical care, but — as anyone who lives here knows — trying to see a dentist means a major disruption to our everyday lives. The nearest dentist, a solo practitioner, is in Dalhart, Texas. It’s virtually impossible to get an appointment with him. Our closest real option for dental care is Amarillo, a two-hour drive each way. And we still have to wait a long time for an appointment.
I’ve lived in small communities before.
I know that those of us in small towns have to travel longer distances for services than people who live in cities. But I never imagined that getting dental care for my family would be so difficult.
After I moved to Clayton, I became involved in efforts to recruit a dentist to our area.
At one point, we had a dentist in Colorado who was willing to come to Clayton one day a week, if we could figure out a way for him to break even. But the economics just didn’t work, partly because of the up-front expenses involved in setting up even a part-time dental practice.
The bill that Roch introduced would solve this problem by creating a new kind of practitioner: a dental therapist, who would be trained and certified to provide a narrow scope of dental care services under supervision of an off-site dentist.
So, instead of driving two hours to Amarillo or more than four hours to Albuquerque every time we need to see a dentist, we could make an appointment with a dental therapist right here in Clayton. The dental therapist would take care of the basics, like regular checkups, cleanings, fillings and simple extractions. A supervising dentist would monitor the dental therapist’s work by phone and Internet. For more advanced care, like a root canal, the dental therapist would refer the patient to the supervising dentist.
This would be a win-win for everyone.
People in rural communities like Clayton could finally get basic dental care where they live — eliminating probably three-quarters of the long trips they make now to see a dentist. And yet dentists wouldn’t lose out. In fact, they stand to profit through this arrangement.
Dental therapists would serve as outposts in communities that dentists couldn’t reach before. Dentists could focus their own practices on providing more profitable services, while dental therapists could provide basic, less costly yet sorely needed care. Because their overhead would be lower, they could also take on low-paying or Medicaid patients, whom dentists sometimes can’t afford to see.
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Dental therapists could earn a good living — good enough to stay and work in rural communities for the long haul. And the dental therapist model could even extend the career ladder for dental hygienists, giving them an opportunity to increase their skills, certification level and income.
Dental therapists are just starting to catch on in the United States: Alaska has an active program, and Minnesota is implementing its dental therapist program. Meanwhile, dozens of countries with advanced health care systems have been using dental therapists for more than 80 years to bring dental care to underserved communities. The experience to date has been excellent, and all the research demonstrates that dental therapists provide good, safe care.
Getting a dental checkup shouldn’t be an all-day ordeal. And maintaining our oral health is too important to let it slip. Untreated tooth pain is no joke, and poor oral health can lead to other health problems, including major ones such as cardiac disease and diabetes.
That’s why it’s so important to bring dental care to all of New Mexico’s communities. We need dental care where we live. The dental therapist model can get us there. It’s time to give it a try.
Don Weidemann is an administrator at Union County General Hospital in Clayton, N.M.
