No dental therapists this year after bill tackling oral health care shortage pulled in Senate

The Senate Rules Committee has temporarily postponed a bill that would create a new “dental therapist” position to fill gaps in oral health care access.

After appearing dead for lack of Senate companion, a House bill (HB 363) found its way to the Senate Rules agenda Tuesday. But sources tell Florida Politics the votes were not there following negotiations, leading to the kiss of death for many pieces of legislation: a TP in the waning days of Session.

The bill would have created a new category of dental professional, dental therapists, who would serve as mid-level practitioners more highly trained than dental hygienists, but without the extensive training dentists undergo.

Under the bill, dental therapists would work under the supervision of a Florida-licensed dentist. The bill would require dental therapists to be a graduate of an American Dental Association CODA-accredited dental therapy educational program. They would have to pass the same licensing exam dentists take for procedures that the dental therapists would be authorized to perform, including dental exams, fillings and simple extractions.

The measure would have addressed what supporters of the bill say is an oral health crisis in Florida, with all but one Florida county designated as facing a dental health professional shortage, according to Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) data.

HRSA data show more than 1,250 dentists would be needed to close the current coverage gaps, which cost an estimated $45 billion in lost work productivity across the U.S. as a result of untreated oral disease.

Moreover, Florida hospitals charged nearly $1 billion for emergency room and hospital admissions in 2024 to provide pain relief for preventable dental issues.

And untreated dental and oral health issues can have lasting and potentially fatal impacts to the rest of the body, with poor oral health associated with chronic conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Meanwhile, approximately 11 Floridians are admitted to hospitals each day for life-threatening conditions caused by untreated dental disease.

Republican Rep. Linda Chaney, the bill sponsor, noted earlier this month when the House cleared her legislation that Florida lacks about 1,300 dentists. She said 5.9 million Floridians live in 274 health professional shortage areas.

The shortages are most pronounced in Dixie and Gilchrist counties, where there aren’t any licensed dentists.

But critics, primarily Democrats, have expressed concern that the bill’s passage would allow very young adults — as young as just 18 years old — to perform extractions and deliver anesthesia in dental offices. One Democrat suggested students earning only a GED would be permitted to perform procedures allowable under the bill.

Supporters refuted such claims, noting that dental therapists would have to undergo four years of higher education training, including a year of science-based prerequisites and three years in an accredited dental therapy school. More complex procedures, like root canals, would still have been performed by licensed dentists, not dental therapists.

Fifteen other states have already established the position.