All published studies about dental therapy (nearly 1,500 in total) support dental therapy as an evidence-based solution to increase dental access and improve oral health equity. Dental therapists are mid-level oral health providers, similar to a physician’s assistant for medical care, who are hired and supervised by dentists who choose to employ them as a key player on their dental team.

Dental therapists receive rigorous training in a select set of routine procedures such as filling cavities, placing temporary crowns, and extracting badly diseased or loose teeth. Highlights include:

• Dental therapists graduate from an American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) dental therapy educational program (three academic years of full-time instruction including clinical experience) – the same accrediting body for dental schools.
  
  
• Dental therapists complete the exact same licensing exam as dentists for the procedures they perform.

• Dental therapists can expand a public or private dental practice to increase access to dental care.

• Dental therapists enter the dental workforce with less school debt than a dentist.

• Dental therapists in Florida would practice under the supervision of a Florida-licensed dentist in the following settings: private dental practices; programs or institutions of the Department of Children and Families (DCF), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ); Nonprofit community health centers; Head Start programs; federally qualified health centers; School-based prevention programs; clinics and programs operated by accredited dentistry and dental hygiene colleges in Florida.