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.

V-Savannah2

Savannah Bonorden

From Sitka,AK

Employed by Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium

“Alaska is a big state and access can be difficult especially with the conditions of weather or with the expensive of travel. So having a DHAT placed in a village setting is both rewarding and beneficial for the people. I see the dental therapists as a new mainstream for dental prevention, working together as a team with all occupations of the dental field. We’re a new kind of provider, a profession that has so much promise to the future of oral health. I see all the smiles and gratitude the patients have for the services we provide and I’m proud to be here helping. It warms my heart and gives me the sense that I’m doing something right.”