More Than 90 Organizations Call for Funding of Federal Workforce Program That Includes Dental Therapy

In a non-partisan effort, more than 90 health organizations signed a letter to the United States Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies House Committee on Appropriations, asking for an end to the ban on funding health workforce grants for dental therapy programs. The organizations—including the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research, American Dental Hygienists’ Association, American Public Health Association, National Indian Health Board, and CareQuest Institute for Oral Health—request that the federal government provide $5 million in support of the alternative dental healthcare provider demonstration grant program, which includes dental therapy. In 2010, Congress passed a bill creating a federal program to support midlevel practitioners in dentistry, but it has never been funded. Click here to read more.