Research Analyst Oral Health Workforce Research Center
Participants should be aware of the following financial/non-financial relationships: . Michael J. Helgeson, DDS: Disclosure information not submitted.. Simona Surdu, MD, PhD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Ellen O'Malley, PhD: Disclosure information not submitted.. Deborah Jacobi, RDH, MA: Disclosure information not submitted.
Session Description: The dental therapy workforce model is designed to enable equitable access to dental services for underserved populations. This panel will discuss results from a multi-year study at Apple Tree Dental in Minnesota using a mixed methods approach to ascertain the impact of dental therapists on patients, workflow, and productivity and to describe clinician and patient satisfaction with the workforce. The first presenter will discuss the introduction and integration of dental therapists with clinical teams emphasizing their contributions to quality of patient care. The second presenter will describe an analysis of ten years of patient encounter data for 75,000 patients and the impact of dental therapy on the relative value of services provided by different dental clinicians. The third presenter will discuss the outcomes from surveys of all staff and of 1,000 patients at Apple Tree Dental and their levels of satisfaction with the different provider types in the organization.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the benefits of dental therapy for patients and the positive impacts on the economics of dental practice.
2. Provide evidence supporting dental therapy’s contributions to access to dentistry that is grounded in reliable data from a decade of dental therapy practice.
3. Better understand the dental therapy workforce model by gaining an appreciation of the contributions of dental therapists to organizational efficiency and capacity.
4. Advocate for the recognition and use of dental therapists using documented proof of the positive impacts of the workforce on equitable access to dental services.
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