the pilot allowing for this care to be delivered in a controlled setting. All in all, with politics removed, this delivery of care is being tested within the intention of the statute: to consider innovative ways to extend the oral healthcare workforce to populations who may otherwise have difficulties utilizing existing oral healthcare facilities.


Move forward to the Spring of 2023, when the ODH proposed an additional pilot project to the MDB to create an Oral Pre- ventive Assistant, a type of EFDA. It was proposed that with education and training, this dental team member could be a positive solution to workforce issues by upskilling of dental team within the proven EFDA model to assist with provision of periodontal care on adult and child patients diagnosed as periodontally healthy or with gingivitis. Due to the skills of an OPA being related to periodontal care, it has been met with much resistance from the hygiene leadership; however, like the Nursing Home Project, this pilot project seeks to study the effectiveness and efficiency of a different delivery system of dental care. Both projects (and any others) will be scrutinized by ODH and the MDB, as they should be. Politics … well, they will still exist.


In this age of technology which can advance dental educa- tion and delivery of care, and facing the realities of dental workforce issues (see Dr. Deyton’s My View on page 26), MDA supports the expansion of dental team scopes through both the Nursing Home and OPA EFDA pilot projects — in limited settings, understanding full acceptance will be considered only after they are tested and proven as safe and effective. But we must try, and pilot projects give us the opportunity to do so in a controlled manner, which checks and balances in place.


For the OPA EFDA project, the MDA created a workgroup and hired in a part-time role Dr. Drue Barton, an ATSU MOSDOH grad, to lead in the curriculum development for the pilot. Included in this group are Drs. Guy Deyton, Rolfe McCoy and Ron Wilkerson. Additional dentists have been consulted on the project, Drs. Tim Taylor, Ed Kendrick and Jackie Miller.


This workgroup is progressing through curriculum development (more details on page 35). Once completed, ODH will bring the cur- riculum to the Missouri Dental Board for approval. The timeline for that is late October.


The MDA is fully funding the creation of the OPA EFDA curriculum development and decided to fund a dental training facility at the MDA office in Jefferson City. The renovation of the basement area will host multiple types of dental education programs to be given, including all EFDA courses and the OPA EFDA training (see page 33).


Another part of the OPA EFDA Pilot Project underway is outlining the aspects of clinical site selection. In early October 2023, the RFA (Request for Application) will be sent to dental practices that have in- formed ODH and/or MDA they want to be considered for the project. Any dental practice/clinic that wishes to be considered as a site for the


project can apply. The focus of the sites will be concentrated in rural and health professional shortage areas. There are specific require- ments practices must agree with to become a clinical training site for the OPA. A large component — and crucial to selection of sites and OPA candidates — will be an understanding about the importance of data collection on the OPA, which will assess a myriad of reporting metrics, defined by the ODH. Sites will not receive remuneration for being a part of the project, but MDA is working to find grant opportu- nities that could benefit OPA candidates participating in the pilot.


And just so there is no misunderstanding, it must be stated that this is a pilot and at its conclusion (and upon reporting and assessment) legislation still will have to be codified in law for an OPA to work in a dental setting. Visit moefda.org if you are interested in completing the RFA for this OPA pilot.


Workforce matters will continue to plague dentistry for years to come — solutions are varied and must be considered and tested; change won’t happen overnight. We are listening, we are working hard for you and we know the workforce of today won’t be the workforce of tomorrow. Let’s put politics aside, let’s upskill the dental workforce and let’s create success for the profession.


The following pages and articles detail progress regarding various workforce efforts. Contact Vicki at vicki@modentalmail.org or call the MDA office for questions about any of these.


ISSUE 3 | FALL 2023 | focus 23


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