Recent Email Outreach from Pew Regarding Dental Therapy

Feb 9, 2024 by Drew Eason, FDA Executive Director
This week you may have received an email from The Pew Charitable Trusts regarding a proposal to introduce a new licensed provider to Florida, called a dental therapist. This communication did not come through the Florida Dental Association (FDA), nor did the FDA provide member emails to this entity.
If you do not wish to receive emails from Pew on this issue, you can remove your information from their listserve by going to the bottom of the email you received from Pew and clicking “unsubscribe.”

The FDA opposes this proposed legislation as it will not provide the immediate solutions that are needed in Florida, will not support the highest standard of dental care and will not effectively improve the oral health of all Floridians.

The FDA is championing HB 465 and SB 716, legislation that will immediately increase access to care and improve oral health for those who need it most by establishing a dental student loan repayment program and expanding the Florida Donated Dental Services program.

Your voice is critical to ensuring Florida lawmakers enact policies that will bring immediate care to where it is needed and ensure the highest standard of care for all Floridians. We encourage you to stay updated on these issues and opportunities to take action through Capital Report and other communications from the FDA Government Affairs Office.

We also encourage you to use dentalhealthfl.org as a resource to share with lawmakers, peers, patients and other stakeholders on these issues. The FDA has created this site to educate Floridians on these issues and our initiatives to help increase dental access in our state — including proposed solutions and efforts that FDA members are already engaged in to improve the oral health for Floridians in need.

Please reach out to FDA Chief Legislative Officer Joe Anne Hart at jahart@floridadental.org or 850.224.1089 if you have any questions or would like to discuss any of these items further.

We appreciate your passion on these issues and in serving with the FDA as Florida’s
advocate for oral health.

Special Alert - March 8, 2019