Dental/dental hygiene trainees discuss treatment costs, dental training/education and access to care. (2023)
I’m not sure, I think it’s so multifaceted and that’s why everybody’s talking about a different aspect of it. I mean, starting from a legislative component, we got some exposure to that. I mean, now they’re trying to put some laws in a place that increased reimbursement for Medicaid, because if you don’t have good reimbursement for Medicaid, and you have all this debt coming out of dental school, why in the world would you want to accept Medicaid? And then with that also reducing barriers like going to dental school, so that people of a variety of different backgrounds can even get into dental school to become those providers, that need to be there for those patients. And then back to the individual component that he was talking about, ultimately you can have all these policies and all these changes, but if the individuals themselves that are in dental school, or that are in those positions, are not making those conscious decisions to try and be those types of providers, that see people of different backgrounds, and try and understand and empathize with those different backgrounds. Then, what’s coming of those things if the individuals themselves aren’t making those decisions?
So at some point you need to take it down to the individual basis as well. And then it’s even what you’re exposed to in dental school, I was just talking to someone the other day saying, “We get a lot of exposure to corporate dentistry. We don’t get talked to about federally qualified health centers. We don’t really get talked about all these different opportunities, where you can go out somewhere to people who are more underserved and provide for those people.” So, I feel it’s a combination of so many things and it’s like a, “Where do you begin?”