March 1, 2010

Dear Fellow North Carolina Dental Hygiene Colleagues,

Recent publicity in local newspapers across the state has sparked much discussion about access to dental care for North Carolina’s citizens.  Your North Carolina Dental Hygiene Association (NCDHA) is actively working on solutions.

One of the goals of NCDHA’s 2009-2011 Strategic Plan[1] is “NCDHA and its members will work in partnership with dentists and other stakeholders to advance oral health.” A major objective toward accomplishing this goal is to enhance collaboration with concerned parties within and outside of the dental community. As a first step, the NCDHA Executive Committee immediately reached out and initiated a meeting with the North Carolina Dental Society’s Executive Committee to establish dialogue and communications.  We have been warmly received and have had very positive discussions.

NCDHA’s Board of Trustees (BOT) met on February 20, 2010 to discuss workforce models as proposed in recent news articles.  A committee was appointed to research and study all aspects of  “direct access models” that are working in other states.  Twenty-six states have “direct access models” whereby dental hygienists are working collaboratively with dentists to increase access to care in their respective areas.  In addition to examining all “direct access models”, this committee will study North Carolina’s access to care needs as well as what resources are currently available to best meet those needs.  From there, recommendations will be presented and proposed as solutions.

We will propose solutions that can specifically address the needs we have in North Carolina with the available resources.  The solution must be focused on increasing access to care and improving oral health for all North Carolinians with safe and proven solutions.  By working in partnership and collaboratively with all concerned parties, the solution will also create more workforce opportunities for North Carolina’s registered dental hygienists.

I invite all dental hygienists to get involved and become part of the solution.  If you are not a member of NCDHA, I encourage you to join and attend your component meetings and the BOT meetings, where you will receive accurate and regular updates on the efforts and progress your association is making on behalf of your profession.  You may join on-line at https://members.adha.org/source/members/cMemberInsert.cfm.  

The next NCDHA Board of Trustees meeting will be May 1^st at Guilford Technical College.  This meeting is open to all NCDHA members and will be devoted to committee “think tanks”.  If you would like to serve on a committee or provide input and suggestions to these committees, I invite you to attend this meeting.  Each committee has room for one or two more creative minds. 

The committees that will be meeting are:

·        ACCESS TO CARE

·        CONTINUING EDUCATION

·        EMPLOYMENT / WORKFORCE

·        GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

·        HOUSE of DELEGATES

·        MEMBERSHIP

·        OPERATIONS/BYLAWS

·        PUBLIC RELATIONS/OUTREACH

·        WAYS AND MEANS/FUND-RAISING

·        WEB SITE/PUBLICATIONS

This is an exciting time to be involved in the improvement of access to oral health care for North Carolina’s citizens.  You are invited to participate in a historic decision-making process!  Please contact me for more information if you wish to be included. 

Finally, the web site committee has been busily working on a new NCDHA web site where news and updated information will be available.  Until it is up and running, please feel free to call me anytime with any questions or any information updates.  I look forward to working with you!

Warmest regards,

Sandra Boucher-Bessent, BS, RDH

President, North Carolina Dental Hygiene Association

CE Co-chair, North Carolina Dental Hygiene Academy of Advanced Studies

2400 Pine Cape Court

Kannapolis, NC 28083

slboucher@carolina.rr.com

704-425-0914