Winter 2017-18

17 nmdental.org If the story of the CDHC is one of an evolving model based on careful design, the story of the “dental therapist” in America is much more like the “organized” chaos of kids’s sports. When my kids were little, the first organized sport they were involved in was soccer.I use that term “organized” loosely, but it was not from lack of trying. Teaching 4–5 year olds how to run and kick can be a challenge. In those days, everyone had dreams of being Pele. (I suppose now it is Messi or Ronaldo.) K-league coaches are usually 30-somethings also having their first experience coaching kid’s sports. While they have a slight maturity advantage over their teams, the vision of a dozen pint- sized Pele’s winning the K-league World Cup is hard to shake, even if you are officially not keeping score. The game begins with the players carefully spread across the field, but when the ref blows the whistle and drops the ball to begin play, there is a surge of movement from all directions. Suddenly there are 20 kids wholly intent on getting their kicking foot to the ball. For the next 40 minutes, that will be the story of the game. A mass of kids surrounding a mostly unseen ball moving from one side of the field to another. When you are a parent, you only see the World Cup potential on display, but to anyone else, you have to smile at the joyous chaos disrespecting the adult efforts at organization. Proponents of dental therapist are like those doting parents. However well-intentioned or planned the concept may have started, competing interests have made it almost unrecognizable as the same game. How did it get this way? Some of it is professional narcissism, but fundamentally it is a lack of understanding of the problem and a predisposition toward broad policy solutions to specific practical problems. Instead of recognizing that “their kid” had some growing up to do and allowing it to excel at what it was really good at, “the parents” insisted that their offspring was perfect for every position on the field and essential for every team. The dental therapist was never as good as they thought it was, but if there were skills or settings where it might have had application, the notion that it could work in spite of the broader dental community rather than as part of it, has made it contentious and largely impotent. State of the Workforce | continued 2018 The Chaotic Lineage of the American (or whatever you want to call it) continued on next page  By Tom Schripsema, DDS— NMDA Executive Director and Michael Moxey— NMDA Director of Communications and Advocacy