The Community Oral Care Specialist©

Better access to dental care can only come about with better access to prevention. If Organized Dentistry is going to improve care to those who our lawmakers call the underserved, they (we) must first find a better way to help the “underserved” understand their basic dental need regarding fear, cost and treatment. I submit that this will only be accomplished with the help of a Community Oral Care Specialist© (“COCS”) that is educated and trained to work with low income populations. A COCS would market dental health, much like any corporation would market their product to the public. A COCS would work in shopping centers at fairs and colleges, as well as elementary school systems. This trained “specialist” could also work in community health centers in any town, wherever their supervising agency would want to deploy them. A Community Oral Care Specialist© would be charged with providing a nonfearful atmosphere for appraising, not diagnosing, dental health conditions. The minimum educational requirements for a COCS would be a background in preventive dentistry, much like a dental hygienist or registered dental assistant. This would be accompanied by course work in psychology, oral pathology and one or more foreign languages. A Bachelor of Science Degree combined with entry level pay and benefits commensurate with employees having comparable education within the State Department of Health they worked for, would promote the program. The Community Oral Care Specialist would be a person possessing unlimited compassion to help those less fortunate, accompanied by a desire to instill preventive dental care recommendations to all interested parties. Using their special skills in communication, a COCS could very effectively work in many different venues to help alleviate the fear of both dental pain and cost. To effectively confront the continuing issue of providing lower dental costs to the underserved or low income population, lawmakers, educational facilities and the dental community at large must unite and endorse a workable model to handle the problem. The unique and talented Community Oral Care Specialist that can market preventive dentistry outside the traditional dental office is the future of dentistry. The Community Oral Care Specialist© will have the job of increasing patient access to prevention.