Portage County Legal News

Bill designed to reduce regulatory burdens on dental hygienists

ELISSA COLLOPY
Special to the Legal News
Published: May 27, 2016

Senate Bill 330 would bring dental practitioners and oral health care to underserved communities, according to Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering.

Ohio has 84 dental health professional shortage areas, and SB 330 would reduce regulatory burdens on dental hygienists and allow dental therapists to provide basic restorative care such as filling cavities while under the supervision of a dentist.

“When it comes to dental care, particularly for low-income and rural Ohioans, there are simply not enough dentists to meet the needs of many communities,” said Steve Wagner, executive director of Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio. “Unfortunately, we will see the shortage of dentists grow over the next decade, making access to dental care for underserved communities even more difficult. We applaud Senator Lehner’s leadership to improve access to oral health care by expanding the dental care workforce.”

SB 330 has four components to expand the reach of the dentist-led team: expands the reach of dental hygienists, adds a dental therapist, who is an educated and specially trained individual in a limited number of restorative and preventive procedures; allows dental hygienists to take additional training and be licensed as a hygienist and a dental therapist; and focuses the practice of dental therapists to dental health professional shortage areas and with dentists who have 20 percent or more of their patient caseload from the Medicaid population.

“Ohio needs dental therapists to expand the reach of the dental care team,” said Dr. Larry Hill, a public health dentist from Cincinnati, Ohio. “By allowing dental therapists to perform a small number of routine services, dentists are freed up to focus on more complex cases or patients with multiple needs. It is a cost effective way to deliver quality care to more patients.”

However, not everyone agrees with SB 330.

“Allowing undertrained individuals to perform irreversible surgical procedures would be detrimental to the oral health of Ohioans and would be an unnecessary distraction from the progress being made in addressing the critical issue of access to dental care in Ohio,” said Dr. Chris Connell, the Ohio Dental Association President. “Accordingly, the Ohio Dental Association strongly opposes Senate Bill 330.”

The Commission on Dental Accreditation recently issued education standards for dental therapy. The commission is the same body providing education standards for dentists and hygienists.

“Just as CODA accreditation ensures that dentists graduate at the highest standards possible, CODA accreditation assures that dental therapists will also graduate with the highest standards of quality,” said Hill.

The movement to add dental therapists is not limited to Ohio.

About a dozen states across the country are considering legislation.

Studies show that dental therapists expand access to care for hard to reach populations.

“The workforce model proposed in SB 330 has support from dentists, hygienists, conservative groups, service providers, food banks, and dozens of statewide and local organizations who know that expanding access to dental services enables Ohioans to get the care they need to lead healthier lives,” said David Maywhoor, project director of Dental Access Now! for UHCAN Ohio.

SB 330 was introduced on May 17.

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