Page 82 - 2021 AGD ADVOCACY

History Part 3
Alaska's Native DHATs(2005)

• Alaskan Native Tribal Health Council (ANTHC): The ANTHC decided
to send some of their own people to NZ for training as DTs.

• They are called Dental Health Aide Therapists (DHATs) which
are equivalent to MN's Basic DT or to today’s CODA DT.

• The AK state dental society and ADA strongly objected to non-
dentists providing irreversible dental care without dental
supervision.

• There is no state law authorizing licensing of DTs in Alaska, so
they are "certified" and restricted to deployment within the
Native Health system.

• Native Alaskan DTs are culturally connected to the Alaskan native
patients, which speaks to the value of the "recruitment"
component of the recruit-train-deploy model.