dental hpsa

Background DHPSA Designation workgroup Publications

The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research was awarded a contract to develop a methodology to designate dental health professional shortage areas. This project will be accomplished over a two-year period and will involve the application of a conceptual model of dental access and use derived from empirical studies. The model will guide the analysis of national dental utilization data and their relationship to the sociodemographic characteristics of potential dental care service areas in the United States. That analysis will create a set of weights of factors that can be applied to areas to determine those which have shortages of professionals to provide preventive and restorative dental care and to screen and refer other diseases in the course of those services. The project will be led by Thomas C. Ricketts, Ph.D. who will be assisted by expert analysts with experience in health workforce studies and the development of shortage area criteria as well as dental practitioners with experience in health service research and the study of access-focused systems of care. The development of the methodology will involve the active and recurring input of key stakeholders in the field of dentistry, dental workforce analysis, community-based dental care, state regulatory and dental care programs, and representatives of special populations and communities that experience historical problems in accessing dental care. The products of this project will be a detailed methodology which can be applied in federal policy making; a detailed analysis and summary of the effects of the proposed methodology on designations; and data, summaries, and detailed descriptions of the application of the proposed methodology that can be used to publish a rule to be included in the Code of Federal Regulations that will describe and apply the method.

DHPSA Designation Workgroup:
The Dental HPSA Designation workgroup met in Washington D.C. on February 6th, 2004 (click here to read a summary of the meeting). Five key issues were discussed. Click on the links below to read more about the issues.

Fluoridation
Rational Service Areas (RSAs)
Indicators of Need
Dental Hygienists
Providers of Dental Care

Publications:
Map: Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (DHPSAs), 2004
Map: Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (DHPSAs), 2002
White Paper 1: Creating an Age-Sex Adjusted Need: This paper describes a proposed method for creating an age-sex adjustment to reflect need for dental health care services.
White Paper 2: Calculating Productivity Weights: This paper describes how productivity can be weighted for dentists and dental hygienists in a methodology that adjusts for productivity.
White Paper 3: Water Fluoridation: This paper reviews the relative importance, measurability, and expected effect of water fluoridation on the development of a dental professional shortage index for a community.