February 15, 2006
Dental Health Aide Therapists are filling a crucial need in rural Alaska. Pictured with YKHC dentist Dr. Mary Willard, center, are Dental Health Aide Therapists Conan Murat and Lillian McGilton.
The American Dental Association (ADA), Alaska Dental Society and four private dentists filed a lawsuit last month against the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Dental Health Aide Therapists.
The complaint asks that the court find ANTHC and Dental Therapists in violation of state dental licensing laws.
ANTHC, YKHC, and other tribal health organizations throughout the state have been working diligently to build the program in rural Alaska, where dental disease is two and a half times the national average. The ADA has challenged the authority of the Dental Therapist program in every other forum and has failed.
“Since they have named the individual Dental Therapists as defendants in this, YKHC will 100 percent support and represent our Dental Therapists,” said Gene Peltola, YKHC’s President/CEO.
“This is a waste of their money,” said Dr. Edwin Allgair, YKHC’s Dental Department Director.
“No teeth are going to be fixed in court—they could spend that money helping people in need instead of spending it trying to stop a reasonable response to a real problem.
“When they don’t have a viable solution to the real problem that we have here, all they can do is spread fear, uncertainty and doubt with threats like this. The state Attorney General has already made a clear decision that Dental Therapists are legal in the capacity that they are being used under federal programs. It is not a state’s rights issue, it is an ethics and public health issue—rampant dental disease in rural Alaska needs to be taken care of.”
For more information on this issue, visit the YKHC website at www.ykhc.org. Quotes from story by KYUK radio reporter Angela Denning-Barnes.