Dentists can contribute expertise in a major public health disaster

The time for dental professionals to educate themselves to respond to, and assist with, a catastrophic medical disaster is here. California dental healthcare workers must understand the various duties they may be asked to perform if a large-scale disaster were to occur. This article explores the various duties, which may need to be performed in the event of a medical disaster, and the duties a dentist, or dental auxiliary, may be able to complete, with minimal additional training.

California dentists must be educated, at minimum, to recognize the symptoms of exposure to biological agents or naturally occurring diseases, such as avian flu and SARs, in their patients. Dentists must be further educated to correctly counsel their patients who exhibit such symptoms. Finally, dentists must alert the appropriate public health authorities of such exposure. California should consider amending the California Dental Practice Act to provide for the expansion of the definition of the practice of dentistry in the event of a declared healthcare emergency. The new definition should, at minimum, allow dentists to administer vaccines and dispense medications at a mass prophylactic distribution site. The definition could be further expanded to allow dentists to perform more complicated or invasive duties in the event of a disaster with large numbers of bodily injuries. In either event, California will also need to provide limited liability to dentists who do participate in emergency situations, similar to the Good Samaritan laws, which currently apply to physicians and surgeons.

Dentists and their dental auxiliaries can augment the existing medical professionals, in responding to a declared medical emergency. In order to be ready to respond, dentists and their dental auxiliaries must receive additional training through continuing education courses developed specifically to train them in recognizing symptoms of exposure to biological agents.