AGD opposes alternative health provider funding

The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) sent a letter this month to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and Related Agencies, opposing federal funding of a demonstration project to train or employ "alternative dental healthcare providers," according to the advocacy section of the AGD website.

The letter requested that the subcommittee oppose funding $4.9 million for this program during its consideration of the fiscal year 2012 Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

"There is no evidence to support the economic feasibility of training midlevel providers, such as dental therapists, to perform irreversible, surgical procedures," said Myron Bromberg, DDS, chair of the AGD Legislative and Governmental Affairs Council. And, in fact, it raises significant concerns about the quality of the resulting dental care and the potential for this leading to the establishment of a two-tiered oral healthcare system where the poor -- especially the minority poor -- and the geographically disadvantaged would be subjected to second-class care from inadequately trained oral health providers."