Abstract
The 2010 U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) calls for training programs to develop mid-level dental health care providers to work in areas with underserved populations. In 2004, legislation was passed in Arizona allowing qualified dental hygienists to enter into an affiliated practice relationship with a dentist to provide oral health care services for underserved populations without general or direct supervision in public health settings. In response, the Northern Arizona University (NAU) Dental Hygiene Department developed a teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice dental hygiene model that places a dental hygienist in the role of the mid-level practitioner as part of a digitally linked oral health care team. Utilizing current technologies, affiliated practice dental hygienists can digitally acquire and transmit diagnostic data to a distant dentist for triage, diagnosis, and patient referral in addition to providing preventive services permitted within the dental hygiene scope of practice. This article provides information about the PPACA and the Arizona affiliated practice dental hygiene model, defines teledentistry, identifies the digital equipment used in NAU's teledentistry model, give an overview of NAU's teledentistry training, describes NAU's first teledentistry clinical experience, presents statistical analyses and evaluation of NAU students' ability to acquire diagnostically efficacious digital data from remote locations, and summarizes details of remote applications of teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice dental hygiene workforce model successes.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 733-742 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Dental Education |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| State | Published - Jun 1 2011 |
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Keywords
- Affiliated practice dental hygiene
- Dental hygiene
- Digital diagnostic data
- Mid-level dental health care practitioner
- Teledentistry
- Underserved populations
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Dentistry(all)
- Education
Cite this
Teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice for dental hygienists : An innovative oral health workforce model. / Summerfelt, Fred F.
In: Journal of Dental Education, Vol. 75, No. 6, 01.06.2011, p. 733-742.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice for dental hygienists
T2 - An innovative oral health workforce model
AU - Summerfelt, Fred F.
PY - 2011/6/1
Y1 - 2011/6/1
N2 - The 2010 U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) calls for training programs to develop mid-level dental health care providers to work in areas with underserved populations. In 2004, legislation was passed in Arizona allowing qualified dental hygienists to enter into an affiliated practice relationship with a dentist to provide oral health care services for underserved populations without general or direct supervision in public health settings. In response, the Northern Arizona University (NAU) Dental Hygiene Department developed a teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice dental hygiene model that places a dental hygienist in the role of the mid-level practitioner as part of a digitally linked oral health care team. Utilizing current technologies, affiliated practice dental hygienists can digitally acquire and transmit diagnostic data to a distant dentist for triage, diagnosis, and patient referral in addition to providing preventive services permitted within the dental hygiene scope of practice. This article provides information about the PPACA and the Arizona affiliated practice dental hygiene model, defines teledentistry, identifies the digital equipment used in NAU's teledentistry model, give an overview of NAU's teledentistry training, describes NAU's first teledentistry clinical experience, presents statistical analyses and evaluation of NAU students' ability to acquire diagnostically efficacious digital data from remote locations, and summarizes details of remote applications of teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice dental hygiene workforce model successes.
AB - The 2010 U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) calls for training programs to develop mid-level dental health care providers to work in areas with underserved populations. In 2004, legislation was passed in Arizona allowing qualified dental hygienists to enter into an affiliated practice relationship with a dentist to provide oral health care services for underserved populations without general or direct supervision in public health settings. In response, the Northern Arizona University (NAU) Dental Hygiene Department developed a teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice dental hygiene model that places a dental hygienist in the role of the mid-level practitioner as part of a digitally linked oral health care team. Utilizing current technologies, affiliated practice dental hygienists can digitally acquire and transmit diagnostic data to a distant dentist for triage, diagnosis, and patient referral in addition to providing preventive services permitted within the dental hygiene scope of practice. This article provides information about the PPACA and the Arizona affiliated practice dental hygiene model, defines teledentistry, identifies the digital equipment used in NAU's teledentistry model, give an overview of NAU's teledentistry training, describes NAU's first teledentistry clinical experience, presents statistical analyses and evaluation of NAU students' ability to acquire diagnostically efficacious digital data from remote locations, and summarizes details of remote applications of teledentistry-assisted, affiliated practice dental hygiene workforce model successes.
KW - Affiliated practice dental hygiene
KW - Dental hygiene
KW - Digital diagnostic data
KW - Mid-level dental health care practitioner
KW - Teledentistry
KW - Underserved populations
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M3 - Article
C2 - 21642518
AN - SCOPUS:79958755387
VL - 75
SP - 733
EP - 742
JO - Journal of Dental Education
JF - Journal of Dental Education
SN - 0022-0337
IS - 6
ER -