DHAT Profile

Robert CurtisBased in Shishmaref, AK

Employed by Norton Sound Health Corporation

“Initially I worked as a Dental Assistant. The DHAT program interested me, and I trained as a DHAT in New Zealand during 2003-2004. Currently I live in a remote community of 600 to 700 people. The population of kids is around 200 to 300. We have a weekly flouride schedule where we go up to the school at a set time Monday through Thursdays. During the school year we take kids out of class to do cleaning, provide fluoride treatment and talk about brushing. If they have other work that needs to be done we get them in after. With adults we schedule them into the clinic early in the morning or after school is out. If a patient comes in and I see the procedure will be out of my scope of practice I refer them to the dentist in Nome.”

Mission Statement

DENTEX is an Alaska based program that educates dental health aide therapists to provide dental care to Alaska Native communities.

DENTEX is a collaboration between the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the University of Washington School of Medicine Physician Assistant Training Program, MEDEX Northwest.

DENTEX is committed to training Alaska Native dental health professionals to practice dental therapy with dentist supervision.

The program provides a narrowly focused, competency-based, primary care curriculum that emphasizes community level dental disease prevention for the underserved Alaska Native populations.

The curriculum incorporates innovative public health related preventive and clinical strategies to address the vast unmet dental needs of the Alaska Native population.

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