skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Closing the Gap on Dental Care in New Mexico

play audio
Play

Thursday, March 14, 2019   

SANTA FE, N.M. – Nearly 900,000 New Mexicans do not have access to dental health care, but legislation headed for the governor's desk would change that.

New Mexico is poised to become the eighth state to adopt a program that allows dental therapists to provide routine and preventive care and take their skills to rural areas where dental health care often is lacking or non-existent.

Jacob Vigil, a research and policy analyst with New Mexico Voices for Children, says the bill will allow thousands of rural and underserved residents suffering from dental decay access to professional care.

"This is really a game changer for our state, being a state that's very large, with a big rural population, tribal population,” Vigil stresses. “This is a really innovative and critical step that our state is taking to address those access needs."

The governor is expected to sign the legislation.

Vigil says New Mexico's Native Americans suffer the most with dental care, noting that Navajo Head Start reports that 70 percent of the program's children have untreated tooth decay.

Arizona and Michigan also have passed similar legislation this year to provide dental care for residents who are low-income, uninsured or living in rural and tribal areas.

Vigil says more than 25 percent of elementary-aged children in New Mexico have untreated tooth decay, and having access to dental care through the new therapist program will provide them with a better quality of life and potentially help them succeed in school.

"Given the impact of dental health on overall health, particularly with children, and so we know that about a quarter of children in New Mexico have untreated dental disease, and that has a huge impact on their education, on their lifetime health," he states.

Efforts have been under way for eight years to get the legislation passed.

Dental therapists are licensed dental practitioners who work as part of dentist-led teams, providing services similar to a physician's assistant.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021