title: Dental therapy: another tongue in the babel of dental access for children.
abstract: The debate over midlevel dental care providers, such as dental therapists, is intense in emotion but light on facts and data. This opinion paper questions the applicability of dental therapy in the United States and offers a prediction for its very limited acceptance. More importantly, this paper suggests that the debate on dental therapy in the United States ignores crucial issues and will delay the likelihood of improvement in children's access to oral health care.
authors.affiliation: Ohio State University and Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus 43205, USA.
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Casamassimo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003727:Dental Auxiliaries / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019140:Dental Care for Children; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000628:therapy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce