AGD: Dentistry different from medicine

Apr 29, 2009

As the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama begin discussing comprehensive healthcare reform, the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) is asking that dentistry be treated differently from other healthcare.

"Dentistry is very different from the practice of medicine, and these differences must be taken into consideration in any effort by Congress to enact an overhaul of the healthcare system," the organization stated in a press release this week.

The press release calls attention to a white paper the AGD created last summer outlining proposals to increase access to care. In the white paper, the organization argues against the use of midlevel providers such as superhygienists who would provide more care than is currently being done by hygienists but less than dentists are qualified to do.

Instead, the AGD calls for such measures as:

Tax relief and subsidies for dental student loan forgiveness
Tax credits and scholarships to dental students who agree to practice in underserved areas
Loan guarantees for the purchase of dental equipment
Increased funding for dentists in the National Health Service Corps and similar programs
Increased Medicaid reimbursements
Recruitment of dental school applicants from underserved areas

So how does dentistry differ from medicine? The AGD argues that medicine focuses on symptoms and is "driven by a first diagnosis" that leads to referrals and possibly more diagnoses and more referrals. By contrast, dentistry focuses "on prevention and continuity of care through treatment," according to the organization.

As a result, while nurse practitioners and physician assistants might make sense in medicine as an effort to provide more access to care, midlevel providers in dentistry would "disrupt continuity of care and access to quality of care," the AGD stated in the white paper.

"Adoption of the specific recommendations included in the white paper with each of these broad subject areas is likely to dramatically increase access to oral healthcare and reduce the incidence of dental disease and associated systemic ailments," Paula Jones, D.D.S., president of the AGD, said in the release. "The AGD asks Congress to seriously consider the solutions outlined in the white paper in preparing healthcare overhaul legislation."