title: Examining whether dental therapists constitute a disruptive innovation in US dentistry.
abstract: Dental therapists-midlevel dental providers who are roughly analogous to nurse practitioners in medicine-might constitute a disruptive innovation within US dentistry. Proponents tend to claim that dental therapists will provide more equitable access to dental care; opponents tend to view them from a perspective that focuses on retaining the current attributes of the dental profession. Therapists display traits similar to those of disruptive innovations: their attributes are different from dentists', they may not initially be valued by current dental patients, they may appeal to current dental underutilizers, and they may transform the dental delivery system. Whether dental therapists constitute a disruptive innovation will only be determined retrospectively.
authors.affiliation: Section of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Dental Medicine, and the Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. ble22@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Burton L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Edelstein
mesh_terms: D003727:Dental Auxiliaries; D003729:Dental Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D003813:Dentistry / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce