The rate of tooth decay in Alaskan Native villages is 2.5 times the national average and access to dental care is severely limited because of distances and the number of dentists willing to work in remote areas. So, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium decided to start a program to train local people as dental health aide therapists to do some of the work dentists do (extractions, fillings, crowns, etc.) and also to educate their people about good oral hygiene and diet (native teeth were relatively healthy until the white diet and all its sugar was introduced, along with the bacteria that reacts with sugar to cause tooth decay.)
Dental therapists have been around for 80 years in New Zealand, 35 years in Canada, and exist in every industrialized nation in the world... except the U.S.
Instead of applauding a plan initiated, developed and paid for by Natives to help end a Native public heath crisis, the American Dental Association FILES A LAW SUIT against the new therapists and the consortium to try to stop it.
Links:
Background on dental crisis
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
American Dental Association (go to Press Kit for info on the legal suit)
U.S. Public Health Service
It's already working everywhere else in the world so, of course time and effort will be spent in court.
Is it just me or do Native people have to fight for every single piece of their lives no matter how small? It seems to me that white society would prefer to spend money on lawyers rather than on improving living conditions or other opportunities for improvement. (Would you drink a glass of water on a reserve?) We are hemorrhaging money to the legal system and the only winners are the lawyers.
Colleen
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