baubles of my mind's eye

The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but the mouth is an indicator of overall health. Poor oral health has been linked to serious problems like cardiovascular disease, worsening diabetes, osteoporosis and premature birth. Regular dental care is, therefore, a key component in reducing costs associated with the care of those chronic diseases.

But dental care is hard to come by in underserved areas of the country. Try finding a dentist in the remotest rural or deepest urban pockets of the land, and for blatantly economic reasons, they just aren’t there. That’s why states are looking to fix the problem by creating a so-called mid-level dental provider. Much like a nurse practitioner (NP) or physician assistant (PA) is to a doctor, this provider would be educated and licensed to perform basic dental services — routine checkups, cleanings, filling cavities and extracting teeth — under the supervision of a fully trained dentist. These providers would be charged with providing care in underserved areas.

Yet in much the same way that the American Medical Association fought against the creation of NPs and PAs, the American Dental Association (ADA) and its state chapters are lobbying hard to thwart state legislatures as they work to create this new level of dental care providers, who are common and well liked in other parts of the world. 

(Source: abbyjean, via adailyriot)