The ADA has responded to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance's report on large dental practices, noting that it is discouraging that profits are being put before patients and "particularly disturbing" that children were involved.
However, the broad brush with which the practice model in question was painted with is "equally disturbing," according to the ADA, adding that the "actual offenders" should be implicated, not the model itself.
The Senate report identifies companies in which dentist employees have been pressured or required to perform unnecessary procedures in order to maximize profits, a violation of the ethical principles in the ADA Code of Professional Conduct, the organization noted.
States have legal and regulatory power to hold all dentists providing care within their jurisdictions to the same legal standards, regardless of who owns those dentists' practices. The ADA urged state dental boards to exercise that authority.
Included in the Senate report is concern about the ability of the dental profession to provide access to care to millions of low-income families and other vulnerable populations. According to the ADA, "only a multifaceted, targeted approach to the numerous barriers that impede dental health will work."
The Action for Dental Health, an initiative launched this year by the ADA and state dental societies, targets specific, proven, and community-based solutions and represents the ADA's commitment to expanding access to oral healthcare to include all Americans that seek it, the association noted.
