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Public health jobs help dental students repay loans

While it is generally acknowledged that certain U.S. populations face challenges when it comes to access to care, there is less consensus on how to persuade new dental professionals to go where they're needed most: rural areas or inner-city clinics that treat Medicaid patients. New graduates leave dental and hygiene schools with such huge debt loads that they often simply cannot afford to work in public health clinics that treat underserved populations.

The average dental school student graduates with $170,000 worth of loan debt, according to the ADA.

But now, more and more dentists and hygienists are signing up for multiyear contracts with the NHSC for its tax-free loan repayment programs, which offer up to $60,000 for two years of service and up to $170,000 for a five-year service commitment. And continued service provides the opportunity to pay off all student loans.

David VanSlambrouck, DDS, received $50,000 for a two-year commitment to work in the Community Dental Clinic in Morrisville, VT. Brook Carlson, RDH, received $15,000 for working two years at the Whiteside County Dental Clinic in Rock Falls, IL.

While both were initially lured by the prospect of paying off a chunk of their school loans, both say they enjoy the work and the lack of pressure to produce or to sell procedures that is often entailed in private or corporate practices.

Health professional shortage areas

A February 2011 report by the Pew Center on the States on dental shortages found that more than 31 million Americans are underserved due to a shortage of dentists, and 4,000 areas nationwide are federally designated as health professional shortage areas (HPSAs).

Additionally, healthcare reform will provide dental coverage for an additional 5.3 million children by 2014, but most states don't have basic policies and programs in place to translate the expanded coverage into more dental care, according to dental experts.

"I was interested in the loan repayment program," he acknowledged. "But even more than that, what attracted me to work in FQHCs [federally qualified health centers] was the patient population and just being able to help people that really needed dental care but lacked access to it.

The Stow Dental Group Blog: Headaches and Dental Treatment

If you suffer from severe headaches that seem like migraines and your physician has not been able to help, you may find relief by visiting the dentist. If your bite is misaligned, and nine out of ten people have a misaligned bite, your temporomandibular joint can be affected. The temporomandibular joint is the largest joint in your body, containing large areas of nerves. Talking and chewing food can cause pain to radiate out into different areas of your body. Symptoms of pain in your jaw that cause unbearable headaches can be due to temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). Neuromuscular dentistry focuses on treating the root causes, not just the symptoms, of your pain. This is done using state-of-the-art equipment to record the correct position your jaw should be in, as well as getting your jaw to relax. It may also involve orthodontics, dentures, or other cosmetic dental procedures.

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