Unlicensed to drill, but still doing a good job
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008Aurora Johnson, and other dental therapists like her, is proving that you don’t need to go to dental school for four years post-collegiate training to fill and drill cavities. Ms. Johnson received a two-year dental therapy training program and refers more complex cases to qualified dentists. Although the program is currently confined to Alaska for now, with skyrocketing dental and medical costs, it’s hard not to see Ms. Johnson as the leading edge of a new paradigm of providing medical care that integrates less-highly trained professionals to provide some of the basic care currently only provided by doctors and dentists.
It’s hard to argue that Johnson is not doing the people of Ulaskeet, Alaska good: (more…)