Dental therapy bill aims to close Florida’s rural oral health gap

When I travel from my dental practice in Bradenton to see patients in more rural parts of Florida, the contrast is striking. As a volunteer with Mission Smiles Mobile, I routinely treat patients in places like Arcadia, Plant City, and Dover whose dental problems have already become serious. Cavities have progressed. Infections have worsened.

Pain has become a constant part of daily life.

As a practicing dentist for over a decade, I know that most dental diseases are preventable. But too often, I see what happens when people don’t have access to preventive care. Across Florida, there simply aren’t enough dentists, especially in rural communities.

As a result, people are forced to delay routine care, and oral health problems worsen, becoming harder and far more expensive to treat.

That’s how preventable dental problems end up in hospital emergency departments. In 2024 alone, more than 146,000 Floridians sought care in emergency rooms for dental conditions that could have been treated earlier in a dental office, generating nearly $1 billion in costs for Florida families and the state’s health care system. Children account for a troubling share of these visits: recent analysis shows

Emergency rooms can offer temporary relief, but they cannot provide the preventive or restorative care patients actually need, leaving families, hospitals, and taxpayers to absorb the cost of a system that waits until it’s too late.

We can do better — and we already know how.

House Bill 363, which would authorize dental therapists in Florida, offers a practical, evidence-based way to improve access to care, especially in rural and underserved communities. Dental therapists are licensed oral health professionals who work under the supervision of dentists to provide preventive and routine restorative services, such as exams, fillings, and uncomplicated extractions.

As a dentist, I support dental therapy because I see how it would help us reach patients earlier, before preventable problems become medical emergencies. By allowing dentists to delegate appropriate routine procedures, dental therapists enable practices and clinics to serve more people efficiently, while dentists focus on complex care that requires our advanced training.

They do not replace dentists. They enable dentists and their teams to care for more patients.

This model is not experimental. Dental therapists have practiced safely for decades in other states and countries. In places like Minnesota and Alaska, communities that integrated dental therapists into care teams saw improved access to care, shorter wait times, and fewer emergency dental visits, particularly in rural areas. Quality of care remained high because dental therapists practice within a clearly defined scope and under a dentist’s supervision.

Dental therapy helps control costs by making it easier to get routine care earlier. Because dental therapists can be trained more quickly than dentists, clinics can serve more patients sooner, especially in communities where dentists are scarce. Earlier access helps prevent small problems from turning into complex, costly procedures and reduces unnecessary emergency department visits.

Other approaches, like loan forgiveness and recruitment incentives, can help at the margins, but they take time — and Florida needs solutions like dental therapy that expand capacity now.

This is not about lowering standards or creating a two-tiered system of care. Florida already has a two-tiered system: those who can easily access dental care and those who cannot. Expanding the dental workforce through dental therapy is about closing that gap — not widening it — under the supervision of the same dentists who are already holding the system together.

As a dentist, I want my patients to receive care close to home, from providers working as part of a coordinated dental team. I want children to get sealants and fillings before decay becomes an infection. I want seniors and caregivers to have realistic options that don’t require hours of travel. And I want fewer Floridians showing up in emergency rooms for problems that could have been prevented.

House Bill 363 gives Florida a clear and positive path forward. It doesn’t force any dentist to change how they practice. It simply gives communities and providers another tool to address a growing dental access crisis.

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Dr. Myrna Gamez is a general dentist with MCR Health in Southwest Florida and a volunteer with Mission Smiles Mobile, providing care in rural and underserved communities across the state.