Alaska - Dental Therapists Solving Rural Alaska's Teeth Problems
Dental Therapists Solving Rural Alaska's Teeth Problems
GW Rastopsoff, Alaska Native News
Published 11/18/2011 - 8:32 a.m. AKST ANCHORAGE, ALASKA-On November 16th, PBS News Hour aired the second of a two-part series on the dental needs of rural Alaska. Their report comes on the heels of a report done by Reuters in September of this year. That report by Reuters pointed out that tooth decay in the rural areas of Alaska are four times the rate of decay in other parts of the nation.
The blame for this high rate of decay was found to be inadequate sources of drinking water in the communities. They also cited the high cost of commercially bottled water in communities where local water was in short supply.
According to Dr Ward Hurlburt, with the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, currently Alaska's top public health official, sugar is the main culprit in the tooth decay problems in rural Alaska, he stated on News Hour, "The people in the village, the children in the village drink a lot of soda pop. There is often not good water. A can a pop may cost less than a bottle of water. They will -- babies will be fed things like Jell-O water. And so the kids get a lot of cavities in their teeth. They lose a lot of the teeth, the baby teeth. It goes on into the permanent teeth or the adult teeth. So there are huge problems."
The show continued discussing how rural Alaska can overcome this high rate of decay and how they can gain greater access to care.
Betty Ann Bowser, News Hour health correspondent pointed out that for the last six years some areas of rural Alaska has access to an unconventional mode of dentistry found nowhere else in the nation. This program, the Alaska Dental Health Aide therapist Program, run by the Alaska Native Medical Health Consortium, trains therapists in a two-year program, the trainee must have graduated high school. The training program, for the first year focuses on textbook training and learning basic sciences. They also begin training on mannequins. In the second year, they begin their clinic clerkship, where they see and assist with patients every day.
GW Rastopsoff, Alaska Native News
Published 11/18/2011 - 8:32 a.m. AKST ANCHORAGE, ALASKA-On November 16th, PBS News Hour aired the second of a two-part series on the dental needs of rural Alaska. Their report comes on the heels of a report done by Reuters in September of this year. That report by Reuters pointed out that tooth decay in the rural areas of Alaska are four times the rate of decay in other parts of the nation.
The blame for this high rate of decay was found to be inadequate sources of drinking water in the communities. They also cited the high cost of commercially bottled water in communities where local water was in short supply.
According to Dr Ward Hurlburt, with the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, currently Alaska's top public health official, sugar is the main culprit in the tooth decay problems in rural Alaska, he stated on News Hour, "The people in the village, the children in the village drink a lot of soda pop. There is often not good water. A can a pop may cost less than a bottle of water. They will -- babies will be fed things like Jell-O water. And so the kids get a lot of cavities in their teeth. They lose a lot of the teeth, the baby teeth. It goes on into the permanent teeth or the adult teeth. So there are huge problems."
The show continued discussing how rural Alaska can overcome this high rate of decay and how they can gain greater access to care.
Betty Ann Bowser, News Hour health correspondent pointed out that for the last six years some areas of rural Alaska has access to an unconventional mode of dentistry found nowhere else in the nation. This program, the Alaska Dental Health Aide therapist Program, run by the Alaska Native Medical Health Consortium, trains therapists in a two-year program, the trainee must have graduated high school. The training program, for the first year focuses on textbook training and learning basic sciences. They also begin training on mannequins. In the second year, they begin their clinic clerkship, where they see and assist with patients every day.
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