The Evolving Role of Dental Responders on Interprofessional Emergency Response Teams.
Disaster and pandemic response events require an interprofessional team of health care responders to organize and work together in high-pressure, time-critical situations. Civilian oral health care professionals have traditionally been limited to forensic identification of human remains. However, after the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, federal agencies realized that dentists can play significant roles in disaster and immunization response, especially on interprofessional responder teams. Several states have begun to incorporate dentists into the first responder community. This article discusses the roles of dental responders and highlights legislative advancements and advocacy efforts supporting the dental responder.
Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Dental Medicine Responder Training Office, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 801 South Paulina Street (MC 838), Chicago, IL 60612-7213, USA. Electronic address: colvard@uic.edu.
Michael D
MD
Colvard
Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Dental Medicine Responder Training Office, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 801 South Paulina Street (MC 838), Chicago, IL 60612-7213, USA.
Benjamin J
BJ
Vesper
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 801 South Paulina Street (MC 850), Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Linda M
LM
Kaste
DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 418 North County Farm Road, Wheaton, IL 60187, USA.
Jeremy L
JL
Hirst
UIC Police Department, University of Illinois at Chicago, 943 West Maxwell Street, Chicago, IL 60608, USA.
David E
DE
Peters
Society for Disaster Medicine & Public Health, 11300 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852, USA.
James
J
James
Dental School, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica (ULATINA), San Jose, Montes de Oca, San Pedro, 11501 Costa Rica.
Rodrigo
R
Villalobos
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, 1 Illini Drive, Peoria, IL 61605, USA; Emergency Department, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, 530 Northeast Glen Oak Avenue, Peoria, IL 61637, USA; Peoria County Sheriff's Office, 301 North Maxwell Road, Peoria, IL 61604, USA.
E John
EJ
Wipfler
D003815:Dentists / Q000639:trends*; D004189:Disaster Planning; D004190:Disasters; D060731:Emergency Responders; D006801:Humans; D024382:Professional Role; D014481:United States
Dentist emergency responders; Disaster medicine; Disaster response; Emergency medicine; Interprofessional relations; Mass vaccination; Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act; Pandemics