Alaska's Rural Dental Care Improving

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Dental News
Alaska’s efforts to deliver quality dental care to its underserved rural population via The Dental Health Aide Therapy program (DHAT) has been so successful that is being heralded as a model for other states according to a study done by RTI International of Research Triangle Park in North Carolina with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Alaska’s Rasmuson Foundation and Bethel Community Services Foundation.

The study was an independent evaluation of the DHAT program in confirmed that dental therapists at work in five Alaska communities are providing safe, competent, appropriate dental care to children and adults. Based on the Alaska study, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced a $16 million initiative back in November to fund similar programs in Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Vermont and Washington.

The DHAT program utilizes a new category of dental care professionals known as Dental Therapists whose primary job is to provide preventative dental treatments such as placing sealants on children’s teeth, preparing fillings, placing stainless steel crowns, and giving oral health instruction to patients. All of the dental therapists in the program work under the general supervision of dentists and must receive at least two years of training before they are certified as therapists.

Alaska’s program was modeled after one in New Zealand that started in 1921 and has been adopted by many countries worldwide. In fact, Alaska’s first 10 dental therapists were trained in New Zealand.

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