Dental Therapy Legislation Filed

Feb 9, 2024
Legislation has been filed again to create a new dental licensed provider called a dental therapist. Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) has filed SB 152.

At this time, no House bill has been filed. The FDA does not support creating a new licensed dental provider. Although similar legislation supporting dental therapy has passed in several states, dental therapists are only licensed and practicing in Minnesota. Alaska has dental health aide therapists (DHAT) practicing in that state; however, the educational standards and requirements are substantially less than the educational requirements in Minnesota. Washington has dental therapists designated to practice in limited health settings for Indian tribal communities, and Oregon has a pilot project for DHATs that has been suspended because DHATs participating in the pilot were practicing outside of their scope, among other deficiencies cited.

The following states have passed a version of dental therapy legislation, but have not implemented the program in their state because there are no Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) dental therapy programs approved in any state:

    • Maine (passed in 2014)
    • Vermont (passed in 2016)
    • Arizona (passed in 2018)
    • Michigan (passed in 2018)
    • Idaho (passed in 2019)
    • New Mexico (passed in 2019)
    • Nevada (passed in 2019)
    • Connecticut (passed in 2019)

Florida does not need to add a new licensed provider to the dental workforce. With more than 14,000 dentists licensed in Florida, the focus should be on incentivizing and encouraging dentists to practice in rural and underserved areas around the state. Be sure to check your emails for future legislative alerts on this issue. For more information, go to dentalhealthfl.org.

Capital Report - 09.19.19