ARK DENTAL HYGIENISTS- A 2015 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed that most states face a shortage of dentists, and rural states in the south rank low when it comes to convenient access to oral health.
But thanks to a collaborative-care agreement, dental hygienists in Arkansas are helping fill a critical gap in oral health. In 2011, Arkansas adopted a set of laws allowing hygienists more options for seeing specific groups of patients without a dentist present as long as they obtained one of two permits… one allows hygienists to provide services such as routine cleanings, fluoride treatments and dental sealants to children in schools, another permit allows for hygienists to treat senior citizens and persons with developmental disabilities.
Jennifer Stane is a Dental Hygiene Instructor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
"It's a big step for Arkansas considering we didn't have anything remotely like that before, and in the South we tend to move at a little bit of a slower pace on big changes like that," Stane explain.
But state laws require hygienists to secure written agreements with consulting dentists who operate out of brick and mortar locations. And insurance companies only reimburse the dentist, not the hygienist for any work done. Rebekah Coffey is a dental hygienist with Arkansas Children’s Hospital in northwest Arkansas, she thinks more Arkansas hygienists would enter collaborative agreements if state laws were less restrictive.
"As a dental hygienist, we know exactly what we have to do," Coffey says. "That's part of our training and we're able to do that without a dentist, but we have to legally have one present."
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a report in 2018 recommending --The federal government and states should consider proposals to allow dental hygienists to be paid directly for their services where evidence supports that the provider can safely and effectively provide that care. Currently Texas allows hygienists to see patients but must refer the patient to a dentist afterwards. But Louisiana does not.
