Daily News

Rural communities don’t have enough dentists. The need for them can’t be filled soon, but the state has no reason to delay treatment.

The possible cure is a plan stuck in a state government file from around 1972. When it’s pulled out again, the plan will require some dusting off, but it worked once and could work.

The last time it worked was in the 1970s, when the state had a severe shortage of small-town doctors. Patients too sick or elderly to drive a half hour or more — or too poor to own a car — suffered. It was a health care emergency. A shortage of doctors remains a problem to some extent, but the state worked aggressively to ease the crisis.

Then, students were encouraged to consider becoming general practitioners. The Southern Regional Area Health Education Center on Owen Drive, which promotes education in medical fields, opened during that time. Hospitals joined the effort. Instead of patients traveling to the largest medical centers for specialized care, doctors traveled to see them at smaller hospitals.

A similar effort on a smaller scale should be considered for dentistry.

East Carolina University wants to build the state’s second school of dentistry. (The only one now is at UNC Chapel Hill.) ECU also wants to open clinics in rural communities to offer care, hoping that some new dentists will stay. Both are excellent ideas. A broader approach can be considered as well.

Raeford got a new dentist when Dr. Edward Scammon of Fayetteville opened a second office. But not every dentist can afford to equip and staff two offices. Grants to set up offices could help dentists to afford the costs. Or the state could get involved in public-private partnerships that will open offices and hire dentists. The dentists could rotate to different communities periodically. (more…)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2006 at 5:40 am and is filed under Daily News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.