Dental therapist

A dental therapist is a member of the dental team who provides preventative and restorative dental care, usually for children and adolescents. The precise role varies and is dependent on the therapist's education and the various dental regulations and guidelines of each country.

History

In 1913, the then President of the New Zealand Dental Association, Dr Norman K Cox proposed a system of school clinics operated by the state and staffed by 'oral hygienists' to address the dental needs of children between the ages of 6 and 14 years. At the time the idea was considered too unorthodox but in 1920, at a special meeting of the New Zealand Dental Association, 16 members voted for the adoption of school dental nurses with 7 opposed to the proposal. Such a drastic change in the voting could be accredited to the refusal of New Zealand troops during the first world war. The recruits were rejected due to rampant and uncontrolled dental diseases.

School dental nurses were to provide diagnostic and restorative services to children '...in a rigidly structured set of methods and procedures which spare her the anxiety of making choices'. In Great Britain, during the first world war, 'dental dressers' were used to carry out examinations and treatment for children in parts of England. Their role however, was eliminated by the Dentist Act of 1921 because of hostility to the role on the part of the dentist profession. They were later re-introduced, on the strength of the New Zealand scheme, as dental therapists when the high dental needs of children were 'rediscovered' in the 1960s, carrying out similar services but under the prescription of a dentist who carried out the examination and care plan.