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Dental therapists provide quality care while improving access to care in a cost-effective way, according to a global literature review presented at the recent American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting in San Francisco.

In addition, their participation in school-based programs is linked to declines in the rate of caries in several countries, the survey found.

Kavita Mathu-Muju, DMD, MPH, a pediatric dentist and an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, presented an analysis of the survey during a session on "Emerging Trends in the Dental Workforce."

Jay Friedman, DDS, MPH, a former clinician and researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, co-authored the review. He has studied the New Zealand dental therapist (DTs) model, which requires two to three years of training after high school.

The U.S. has relied on a fragmented, market-driven, private-sector approach to resolve a public health issue, Dr. Mathu-Muju said of the access-to-care issue.

“The global literature indicated that dental therapists improve access to care.”
— Kavita Mathu-Muju, DMD, MPH,
University of British Columbia
DTs in most countries work in school-based clinics under indirect supervision by a dentist, she noted.

A review of more than 1,100 studies regarding DTs by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation released earlier this year documents evidence that they can effectively expand access to dental care, especially for children, and the care they provide is technically competent, safe, and effective, Dr. Mathu-Muju noted.

Another study, done in 1993 by Gordon Trueblood, MPH, PhD, a specialist with the Canadian medical services department, analyzed 1,799 dental restorations placed by dental therapists and dentists in Canada. The quality of restorations placed by DTs was equal to but more often than not better than those placed by dentists, he concluded

Trueblood based his analysis on data from a 1989 study by P. Ralph Crawford, DMD, and Bradley W. Holmes, DDS, both past presidents of the Canadian Dental Association, who were contracted by the Canadian government to assess the technical aspects of dental restorations placed by DTs and dentists.