Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Children by Expanding the Dental Workforce to Include Dental Therapists

Abstract

This article documents the disparities in oral health among children, identifies barriers to access to care for children, describes the use of dental therapists internationally to improve access to care for children, documents previous efforts in the United States to train individuals other than dentists to care for children's teeth, describes the current status of the use of dental therapists in Alaska, justifies limiting the care given by dental therapists to children, suggests potential economic advantages of using dental therapists, and concludes by describing how dental therapists could be trained and deployed in the United States to improve access to care for children and reduce disparities in oral health.