MacIver News Minute: Dental Therapy Gets Hearing in Wisconsin Legislature

 

August 20, 2019

Did you know 65 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties have at least one area with a shortage of dental providers, according to federal data?

Access to dental care is a big concern when it comes to children, the elderly, and the disabled. It’s a real problem with real health implications. But the free market has a solution—a recent study by the MacIver Institute describes a new profession, dental therapy. Dental therapists are licensed to perform more procedures than hygienists, and allowing them here would help increase access by adding to the pool of qualified professionals.

Tomorrow a Senate committee will hear testimony on a bill by Sen. Dave Craig doing just that, allowing those who complete required education and pass state exams to be granted a dental therapy license.

Dentistry is just one area where regulation stands in the way of solving real-world problems. But soon, lawmakers will have the chance to bust one of those barriers.