Patients and Providers Tell Their Stories at the Dental Therapy Work Session
On Thursday, December 1, the House Health and Wellness Committee held a work session on dental therapy, featuring dental professionals, patients, and Tribal members. We were grateful to be able to work with the participants and help them tell legislators how this innovative practice could help all Washingtonians get the dental care they need.
Having been authorized on Tribal lands since 2017, dental therapists are already improving dental experiences for Tribal members. The committee heard from Swinomish Indian Tribal Senator Brian Wilbur about the impact for people in his community: “Dental therapists at Swinomish have significantly changed oral health care in our community by increasing access to culturally responsive oral healthcare and eliminating the historical disproportionate traumatic dental experience.” Because dental therapists are often from the communities they serve, they deeply understand the needs of their patients. As Brian Wilbur articulated: “With our dental therapists coming from our community, the trust and bond with our community members is already there, compared to what we have seen with dentists taking up to a year to gain the trust of our community.”
Angel Johnson, a patient of a dental therapist in the Lummi Nation, illustrated this point with a story about her grandson. She described how her dental therapist was able to take the time to work with him when was feeling very uncomfortable about receiving care from a dentist; “So she talked to [him] and asked him questions, and asked ‘would you feel more comfortable if I was able to help you?’ And he said yeah. And there’s like a class that she had taken when she was in her program, I think it’s called a motivational interview or something, and she just took that little bit of 5 or 10 minutes asked some questions … And I think the appointment took probably about 15 minutes longer than it probably should have, but she was able to provide that service for him, which was awesome.”
Brian Wilbur further highlighted how dental therapists help expand access to complex procedures for families like Angel’s by taking on more routine care so that the dentists are able to practice at the top of their scope: “Our dental therapists provide relief from pain, basic treatment of disease, prevention education, and can spend more time with our patients focusing on preventative and primary oral healthcare, freeing our dentists to focus more on complex oral health procedures.” Additionally, dental therapists increase the bandwidth of oral healthcare clinics, shortening appointment wait times from 2-3 months to 1-2 weeks. This makes a huge difference to community members who previously had to put off getting care or travel long distances in order to be seen by a provider.
It’s clear that dental therapists deliver quality care and increase access to culturally responsive oral health experiences in their communities. With so many Washingtonians unable to access the care they need, dental therapy is a key solution to alleviate their pain.
If you agree that dental therapists should be able to practice in all communities across Washington, tell lawmakers to authorize dental therapy statewide in the 2023 legislative session!