As a Florida-licensed general dentist in St. Augustine with postgraduate credentials in Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD-2) and a Master of Public Health (MPH), I urge immediate support for authorizing dental therapists in Florida. Too many Floridians have been underserved in their pursuit of dental care for too long.
I am proud to be one of the few dentists in Florida with direct, recent experience working with and supervising dental therapists in two other states (Oregon and Alaska), where the practice has been approved. Having personally assessed their performance, I can affirm that they are high-quality, disciplined, compassionate, well-trained, and thoughtful professionals. Dental therapists are conscientious providers of safe and effective patient care.
For more than a decade, I have counted several instructors from the dental therapy teaching programs in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington as close and respected colleagues. The teaching programs are Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) compliant and are active in developing and assessing dental therapy’s practice standards and in validating dental therapy’s clinical skill sets.
Throughout my career, I have worked with under-informed and underserved populations in Appalachia and during military service. I’ve also worked with tribal organizations and served Medicaid beneficiaries through federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). From those experiences, I can confidently state that organized dentistry often bases its opposition on uninformed protectionism and bias rather than on available facts. There is nothing substandard about the quality of care within the scope of a licensed dental therapist. To say otherwise is untrue.
Anticipating a future of elevated oral health in Florida, I am fully committed to using the dental therapy model of care to meet the varied needs across our state. My long-term plan is to either direct or serve on the faculty of a Florida-based dental therapy program when it is initiated.
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Dr. Aubrey R. Hopkins, Jr. is an American Board of General Dentistry and Public Health Dentistry-certified dentist who lives in St. Augustine. She is supporting a measure (HB 363) would create 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. They would work under the supervision of a qualifying dentist. The measure has already cleared the House and is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Tuesday.
