Dental Therapy Highlight: Community Catalyst

Image of Sarah Chagnon, Dental Therapist at the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community

Given that oral health is health, it is important for health advocates to elevate racial, social, and economic disparities within oral health access, affordability, and outcomes. Community Catalyst, a nonprofit national health advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the movement for health equity and justice, does just this.

​By Community Catalyst

At Community Catalyst, we engage in several key strategies to do this, including:

• Supporting training and deployment of community-based and representative oral health provider models, like dental therapists
• Advancing state and federal policies to expand access to comprehensive and affordable dental coverage
• Identifying practice and policy changes to integrate oral health care into medical and community-based settings
• Building community power that fuels movements for oral health care systems that respond to their needs

 
 As a part of this work, Community Catalyst has invested a great deal of time in supporting the dental therapy movement since 2009. Dental therapists are licensed providers who work under the supervision of a dentist to provide care like fillings and exams and can work in community settings, such as mobile clinics, schools, or long-term care facilities. Initially brought to the U.S. by Alaska Native leaders seeking to address provider shortages in their community, dental therapists are now spread across the country and are authorized to practice in at least some settings in 14 states. Research shows dental therapists can increase access to care, reduce appointment wait and travel time, and be a safe and cost-effective addition to the dental team.
 
Educating and licensing dental therapists is more crucial now than ever because the current oral health workforce is insufficient to meet community needs, with over 57 million people living in areas without enough dental providers. The problem is only getting worse, with nearly 10% of dental hygienists and assistants having left the workforce since 2020 and approximately one-third expected to retire within the next five years. People of color, Tribal communities, those living in rural areas, and those with low incomes are among the most likely to experience the effects of provider shortages. Dental therapy also provides an additional pathway into the oral health workforce for low-income, nontraditional, or first-generation college students, and the model was intentionally designed to create accessible education pathways for individuals from communities with poor access to oral health care.
 
Our team actively supports the education and licensure of dental therapists by:

• Providing capacity-building opportunities to advocates, health professionals, and those in the oral health workforce on dental therapy with a focus on advancing and implementing oral health policy.
• Offering strategic technical assistance to state-based efforts to authorize and implement dental therapists.
• Advocating for federal policies to support the deployment of dental therapists in underserved communities.
• Providing policy analysis and recommendations on dental therapy legislation.
• Ensuring dental therapy policy is grounded in evidence and equity and is having an economic and health impact on communities that have historically left out by the oral health system.

 
If you want to connect with the Community Catalyst team around opportunities to collaborate, reach out to us at [email protected], or you can read more on the Community Catalyst website.
 
To learn more about dental therapy, please visit the National Partnership for Dental Therapy at dentaltherapy.org to access resources, research, and updates. 

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