This op-ed was originally published in The Capital Times 

By Doug Ballweg and Joseph Dill, DDS

We recently convened over 20 business, health, and academic leaders in Madison to discuss barriers to health care and opportunities to advance equitable access for Wisconsin’s most vulnerable citizens, including for oral health.

Poor oral health and oral disease are associated with cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease, and periodontal (gum) disease is strongly associated with an increased risk of cancer and diabetes. For better overall health, access to dental care is a must.

In our view, there are two immediate opportunities to get preventive care and dental treatment to people in Wisconsin who are underserved and facing barriers: creating capacity to allow more dental professionals to practice at the top of their license and building a more diverse oral health care workforce.

Making sure that dental professionals can deliver the highest level of care they are trained and authorized to offer creates opportunities for hygienists, dental therapists and others to expand the scope of patient care they provide — something that clinicians across health care, from physician assistants to pharmacists, have been doing for some time. In oral health care, licensing dental therapists to deliver dental services under the supervision of a qualifying dentist, for example, will help increase the supply of services available, particularly in high-risk communities. In Wisconsin, this would include tooth extractions and other procedures done under local anesthesia, X-rays, restorations, and dental hygiene services.

The Legislature, the governor’s office, nonprofit groups, and health care companies are working hard to build an oral health workforce that better serves Wisconsinites.

Recently, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a proposal to create a licensure structure for dental therapists in Wisconsin, along with a new scholarship program for Wisconsin dental students who commit to practicing in underserved, rural areas. In crafting the current budget, the Legislature and governor appropriated $20 million for oral health training and education programs at technical and community colleges — investments in training the oral health workforce of the future. This works hand-in-hand with the Delta Dental of Wisconsin Foundation’s grant of nearly $600,000 to construct a dental simulation lab at a technical college in Eau Claire, which will serve as a learning and continuing education center for current and future dental professionals.

While the Delta Dental Institute is tackling workforce issues nationwide through our Driving Greater Diversity in the Oral Health Workforce campaign, which includes the Oral Health Diversity Fund, locally, the Delta Dental of Wisconsin Foundation is providing scholarships at nine technical colleges and one dental school to encourage dental, dental hygiene and dental assisting students from underrepresented groups to remain in the state and serve vulnerable communities when they graduate.

The Foundation also supports a loan repayment program for dentists serving in designated shortage counties and who commit to prioritizing non-urgent care for Medicaid beneficiaries in their practices. This compliments additional proposed legislation for Marquette dental students to receive scholarships if they agree to practice in dental shortage areas.

Legislators in Madison can support this work by passing Assembly Bill 668 and Senate Bill 689, bipartisan legislation that will increase access to quality dental care by expanding dental therapists’ scope of practice in dental shortage areas and vulnerable communities. The bill has broad backing from Wisconsin insurers, hospitals, and federally qualified health centers, as well as from pediatricians and dental hygienists.

Across the state, leaders and other stakeholders are becoming increasingly focused on the critical need to break down barriers to care to ensure a healthier future for Wisconsin. Together with lawmakers, we can build a clear path to strengthening the oral health workforce and expanding equitable access to high-quality preventive dental care in communities that are underserved — because everyone deserves a healthy smile.

Doug Ballweg is president & CEO of Delta Dental of Wisconsin. Joseph Dill, DDS, is the head of dental science at the Delta Dental Institute.