By Tim Starks
Congressional Quarterly Weekly
WASHINGTON — The next time the government marshals emergency personnel to respond to a disaster, the teams of police, firefighters and medical technicians might also include dentists.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week approved a bill sponsored by two Michiganders, Democrat Bart Stupak and Republican Candice S. Miller, that would define dentists as emergency-response providers, the same way their colleagues and rivals, the medical doctors, are classified.
Stupak, a former policeman, and Miller, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, point out that dentists have some medical training that can come in handy during a disaster, making them a sort of “surge” force of first-responders. In some emergencies, though, dentists have been prevented from taking medical histories of the injured.
“Many federal, state and local officials don’t realize that medical evaluation and triage are important aspects of dentists’ professional education,” says Ron L. Tankersley, president of the American Dental Association.
“Following the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon,” he says, “dentists were among the first to triage and treat the wounded. They played a critical role in saving lives.”
The association has spent several years lobbying to be designated first-responders. For one thing, there’s money at stake.
The bill doesn’t cost anything, but according to Stupak and Miller, denying dentists the emergency-response provider designation has meant that dental schools have at times been refused federal public health and medical response training funds.
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