By Bridget Walsh, Senior Policy Manager, Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
I had the opportunity to attend the American Dental Therapy Association Conference last month, where I shared updates on work to authorize dental therapy in New York.
It was energizing to hear about what dental therapists are doing around the country and to learn more about how dental therapy education is evolving. What struck me most was the excitement. There is so much happening that the word momentum keeps coming to mind, as well as two major themes.
The first is that dental therapists are, first and foremost, community members working in and for their communities. They take real pride in improving the health of their patients, their neighbors. Whatever path brought them to the profession, they are advocates for oral health and passionate about extending its benefits, both to the dental field and to the patients they serve.
The second is that dental therapy has moved past the question of whether it works and into a period of steady, proven growth. The profession is new to many states, but it has a strong track record everywhere it has been tried. Conversations centered on accelerating training programs to meet growing demand, not only in states that already have authorization, but in anticipation of the states working toward it over the next few years. The spread of adoption felt less like a possibility and more like a matter of time.
I sensed that inevitability at the conference’s Dental Therapy Educators Summit. I was glad to hear about the tools now available to help colleges and universities start their own dental therapy programs. It says something about the field’s momentum that enough schools are interested to justify building those resources. Sitting with representatives from both established programs and schools now in development, I found myself thinking about the wide range of higher education institutions New York has to offer and what they could bring to this work.
The Schuyler Center and our partners are working to bring that same energy to New York: a growing profession backed by passionate advocates and practitioners and a wave of states moving to authorize it. New York has the chance to join that momentum, help shape the profession’s future, and expand access to oral health care in communities that have been historically underserved.
If you want to be part of that work, the New York Partnership for Dental Therapy welcomes new organizational partners and advocates. Reach out to us at [email protected] to learn how you can get involved.