Tera Bianchi, former manager of the Washington Dental Access Campaign, addresses the racism and special interests at play in efforts to block dental therapy. She urges Washington lawmakers to expand care statewide.
In Ohio, people with low incomes struggle to access dental care, risking their overall health. Public health experts in the state say dental therapy can help close the gap.
Too many Ohio families face barriers to dental services. The executive director of the Ohio Public Health Association says dental therapy should be part of the solution to expand access.
In Oregon, lawmakers continue to consider a measure that would expand dental therapy in the state, as one solution to “make dental care accessible to a wider variety of communities.”
Leaders from the James Madison Institute and Florida Policy Institute come together to urge Florida lawmakers to support dental therapy legislation, saying it is “a commonsense solution to solve Florida’s dental health crisis.”
With one in four people in Florida living in areas without enough dental providers, a dental educator shares how a state legislative proposal to authorize dental therapy would “bring care to the very communities that need it the most.”
In Oregon, dental therapists are helping reduce wait times for oral health care in tribal communities. A new bill, HB 2528, proposes to expand dental therapy throughout the state.
Claire Roesler, the first dental therapist in Maine and on the East Coast, had been serving as a dental hygienist before the state licensed her to practice dental therapy. She shares about her profession in this news clip.
In March, Claire Roesler became the first dental therapist to be licensed in Maine. Having moved from the Midwest, she hopes she will help expand access to oral health care and that others will join her in the future.
The East Coast’s first dental therapist, a role allowed by a year-old rule change in Maine aimed at bringing dental access to rural areas, has been licensed by the state to practice at Penobscot Community Health Care, in Bangor.
Claire Roesler was recently licensed as Maine’s first dental therapist. She began working at Penobscot Community Health Care’s Dental Center in Bangor in October 2020.
More than 100 partners now support the National Partnership for Dental Therapy. Newly supportive organizations include the National Congress of American Indians, MomsRising, the National Rural Health Association, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
