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The Impact of the Elimination of Adult Dental Benefits from Denti-Cal on the California Dental Safety Net
11-21-12
This research brief presents a qualitative assessment of the impacts of the elimination of dental benefits for Medicaid-eligible adults in California on the oral health safety-net workforce. To understand the workforce impacts, this study examined the effects of the policy change on patient...
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Editorial: Oral Health
07-05-12
The Institute of Medicine has called for nurses to play a greater role in oral health. Nurses often provide care for the vulnerable populations that are least likely to receive necessary, health-sustaining dental care. The link between mouth care, oral health and systemic health is well documented...
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The Virtual Dental Home: Implications for Policy and Strategy
07-01-12
Widely recognized problems with the U.S. health care system, including rapidly increasing costs and disparities in access and outcomes also exist in oral health. If oral health systems are to meet the "Triple Aim" of improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and...
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The Effect of Different Methods of Remuneration on the Behaviour of Primary Care Dentists
05-16-12
Objective: To evaluate the effects of different methods of remuneration on the professional behaviour of primary care dentists and associated patient outcomes.
Full Publication
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Professional Projects and Institutional Change in Healthcare: The Case of American Dentistry
02-01-12
This paper combines resources from the organization studies and sociology literatures to advance understanding of institutional change processes in health care that emerge from the professionalization projects of occupations. Conceptually, we introduce a model that combines the 'archetype' approach...
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Registered Dental Hygienists in Alternative Practice In California, 2009 Descriptive Report
12-01-11
New workforce models in dentistry are being explored as potential solutions to improving the dental care delivery system for underserved populations. In 1998, California officially recognized a new dental health profession: the Registered Dental Hygienist in Alternative Practice (RDHAP). RDHAPs...
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Advancing Oral Health in America
10-07-11
Institute of Medicine Report to the US Department of Health and Human Services about the state of oral health in America.
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Collaborative Practice in American Dentistry: Practice and Potential
01-01-11
As the US seeks to improve the effectiveness and accessibility of the oral health care delivery system – in order to reduce stark disparities in oral health utilization and outcomes that exist in this country – new and innovative models of practice will be necessary. One model includes...
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Alternative Practice Dental Hygiene in California: Past, Present, Future
01-01-11
This study examines the development of the registered dental hygienist in alternative practice in California through an analysis of archival documents, stakeholder interviews, and two surveys of the registered dental hygienist in alternative practice. Designing, testing and implementing a new...
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Improving Oral Health Care Systems through Workforce Innovations
06-01-10
The objective of this paper is to describe the purpose, rationale and key elements of the special issue, Improving Oral Healthcare Delivery Systems through Workforce Innovations. The purpose of the special issue is to further develop ideas presented at the 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop...
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Improving Access to Health Care in California: Testing New Roles for Providers
12-01-09
This issue brief examines the State of California’s Health Workforce Pilot Projects Program, which promotes demonstrations to test new practice models for improved care delivery by: 1) granting temporary legal waivers for providers to perform additional duties; 2) creating new provider categories;...
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Addressing Children's Oral Health in the New Millennium: Trends in the Dental Workforce
11-01-09
Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General (SGROH) and National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health outlined the need to increase the diversity, capacity, and flexibility of the dental workforce to reduce oral health disparities. This paper provides an update on dental workforce...
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California Dental Hygiene Labor Market Report
11-08-08
This report provides an overview of the dental hygiene workforce labor market in California.
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Registered Dental Hygienists in California: Regional Labor Market Chart Book
11-01-08
Registered dental hygienists (RDHs) focus on providing critical preventive and therapeutic dental hygiene services for the population of California. The labor market for dental hygienists is responsive to variations in multiple factors at the local level. This study explores the labor market for...
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A Closer Look at Health Care Workforce Needs in the West: Oral Health Care
10-08-08
The development of the future oral health care workforce is a central focus of WICHE, which has a long history of partnering with states to improve access to dental and other professional training via the Professional Student Exchange Program. This report highlights some of the key trends, issues,...
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Diversity in California’s Health Professions: Dentistry
07-01-08
California has become one of the most racially and ethnically diverse states in the country, and is projected to become even more so in the coming decades. This issue brief is one in a series of briefs presenting a profile of California’s current and projected population, selected health...
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Registered Dental Hygienists in Alternative Practice: Increasing Access to Dental Care in California
05-01-08
In 1998, California officially recognized a new dental health profession: the Registered Dental Hygienist in Alternative Practice (RDHAP). RDHAPs may practice unsupervised in homes, schools, residential facilities and other institutions, and in Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas. Recent...
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Promising Scope of Practice Models for the Health Professions
12-01-07
Legal scopes of practice for the health professions exist in statutes enacted by the state legislature and in regulations developed and implemented by administrative agencies, such as health professions boards. The purpose of this brief is to examine scope of practice issues within the context of...
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Tracking the Supply of Health Professions Education Programs in California
04-01-07
Information from California’s professional and vocational education programs are a key link in estimating the supply of workers for individual health professions. The principal objective of this project is to map the “education link” in California’s supply chain for selected health professions....
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California Survey of Dental Hygienists, 2005-2006: A Workforce Profile
03-07-07
This report provides a profile of the dental hygiene workforce in California.
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Survey of Registered Dental Hygienists in California
03-01-07
Registered Dental Hygienists (RDHs) play a critical role in efforts to promote access to oral health care and prevent dental diseases. The heightened attention on the nation's oral health needs and growing disparities in oral health, as well as pending revisions in federal procedures for...
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Bilingual Proficiency among California’s Health Care Professionals
03-01-05
Californians speak a multitude of languages. In 2000, California ranked first in the U.S. in percent of the population speaking English less than “very well”. With 20% of the general population and 25% of school-age children of limited English proficiency, concerns are rising that many Californians...
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The Distribution and Composition of Arizona's Dental Workforce and Practice Patterns: Implications for Access to Care
07-07-04
The problem of access to dental care services gained national attention following the publication of the first ever Surgeon General’s report on Oral Health. However, dental policies and programs implemented over the past several decades have done little to change the practice patterns of dental...
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Evaluation of Strategies to Recruit Oral Health Care Providers To Underserved Areas of California
07-01-04
Central to efforts to increase access to dental care has been a focus on the supply, distribution and diversity of a workforce willing and able to provide care for underserved populations. While there are no definitive numbers, between 3 and 9 million Californians are lacking access to care or have...
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Health Care Providers’ Language Assistance Responsibilities: Major Federal and California Requirements
10-01-03
A number of federal and state laws address the need to provide health care in a language that the patient understands. This two-page overview of major California and Federal lists requirements for health care providers to provide language assistance to patients who require these services. The...
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Dental Health Professional Shortage Area Methodology: A Critical Review
10-01-02
Legislative calls for new methodologies to identify dentally underserved areas are an acknowledgement of the growing concern that the existing Dental Health Professional Shortage Area (DHPSA) designation criteria are outdated and ineffective. This report explores the history of DHPSAs, critiques...
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The Growing Challenge of Providing Oral Health Care Services for all Americans
09-01-02
By many measures, the practice of dentistry has improved for the dentist over the past decade. Hours of work are down, and compensation is increasing. However, there is a growing disconnect between the dominant pattern of practice of the profession and the oral health needs of the nation. To...
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Identifying Communities with Low Dentist Supply in California
06-01-01
OBJECTIVES: This study estimates the supply and geographic distribution of dentists in California and examines the community characteristics associated with supply of dentists.
METHODS: The number of practicing dentists was estimated from American Dental Association data on licensed dentists in...
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Improving Oral Health Care Systems in California: A Report of the California Dental Access Project, 2000
12-01-00
California and the nation now face an oral disease situation that is of a crisis nature. The situation has developed over several decades and involves a complex set of problems, institutions, attitudes and financing arrangements. For millions across California, access to oral health care services...
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Distribution of Medicaid Dental Services in California
12-01-00
In California, approximately 4.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries are eligible for dental services, yet fewer than half (44%) utilize these services on an annual basis. While several factors may contribute to this low use of dental services, a major deterrent is finding a dentist who will accept...