Dental Utilization for Communities Served by Dental Therapists in Alaska's Yukon Kuskokwim Delta: Findings from an Observational Quantitative Study

• Main Authors: Dane Lenaker, Donald Chi, Lloyd Mancl, Matthew Dunbar, Michael Babb
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: University of Washington, School of Dentistry 2017
• Subjects: Health; Race and Ethnicity; Yukon; Kuskokwim; Alaska
• Online Access: https://issuelab.org/resources/35157/35157.pdf; https://issuelab.org/permalink/resource/35157

Dental Therapists have provided preventive and restorative dental care in Yukon Kuskokwim (YK) Delta communities since 2005. In this retrospective program evaluation, there were two goals: (1) to examine whether dental utilization rates in Alaska Native communities were associated with the number of Dental Therapist treatment days; and (2) to quantify differences in dental utilization rates between communities with no Dental Therapist treatment days versus communities with the highest number of Dental Therapist treatment days during the study period.