In this week’s episode of the Protecting our Public Health Podcast, Sharity interviews Dr. Beth Mertz, Dental Sociologist, Health Services and Dental Policy Researcher and Professor at University of California, San Francisco, about public health from the workforce perspective.
Episode Highlights:
- Dr. Mertz’s journey to her current position
- Her definition of the Oral Health Team
- Different Oral Health Workforce Policy issues
Quotes:
“If you put the patient in the middle and you think about who is helping that person achieve optimal oral health – the team really is anybody that’s interacting with that patient.”
“United States really has a free market approach to the production of these professionals…this is clearly fraught with many problems.”
“We have a huge number of dental health professional shortage areas in the country.”
“What we really have is a maldistribution problem.”
“Those folks who are working in the more public side of the market are very busy, they’re overwhelmed…and for those that are working on the private side of the market, they’re not really busy enough.”
“When you look at the scope of practice, some states allow Dental Hygienists fully to work to the top of their scope, and other states restrict them in ways that are entirely not evidence-based.”
“Places with more restrictive scope…the state actually has poorer oral health.”
Links:
More Protecting our Public Health Podcast: https://ataleoftwohygienists.com/protectingourpublichealth/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel One homepage:
http://dentalpodcastnetworkchannelone.otcpn.libsynpro.com/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel Two homepage:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dental-podcast-networks-channel-two/id1478530429
Oral Health Workforce Research Center homepage: http://www.oralhealthworkforce.org/
Healthforce Center at UCSF homepage: https://healthforce.ucsf.edu/
American Dental Association Health Policy Institute homepage: https://www.ada.org/en/science-research/health-policy-institute
Dr. Mertz’s email: Elizabeth.mertz@ucsf.edu
