Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: INTERVIEWFrank Courts, DDS, PhD, is a pediatric dentist who has had a varied career in education and has practiced in North Carolina for the last two decades.He was heavily involved in Medicaid at the University of Florida before moving to North Carolina and becoming a Physicians Advisory Group (PAG) member.Courts is also a member of the North Carolina Dental Society (NCDS) and serves as chairman of its Council on Oral Health and Prevention.Courts led North Carolina's first school-based dental health program, with the primary goal of providing sealants in a school-based environment.He recently co-chaired the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) Oral Health Transformation Task Force [1], which envisioned a patientcentered future for oral health in North Carolina.Courts was also a member of the 2012-2013 Task Force on Children's Preventative Oral Health Services [2], which recommended policy changes that helped lead to legislation allowing dental hygienists to work in certain environments without direct supervision and to work with dental assistants in those environments [3]."I think that really kind of opened the door to schoolbased and community-based oral health programs for the underserved in North Carolina," said Courts.Crystal Adams, MA, CDA, RDH, Director of the North Carolina Oral Health Collaborative, conducted the following interview with Dr. Courts, alongside Steve Cline, DDS, MPH, Vice President of the Foundation for Health Leadership & Innovation (FHLI).This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.Crystal Adams, NCOHC: What is your "why" for expanding dental care access?Frank Courts: I grew up in rural North Carolina, and I had friends and neighbors, kids I played with, who had oral health problems, and there wasn't a lot of access to care for them.My experience with a dentist as a child was that I saw the dentist every six months.I don't think I ever got my teeth cleaned; I just got a different filling every visit.I really didn't know how to brush my teeth correctly until I went to dental school.I realized that many people don't have the basic understanding of diet and oral hygiene that is necessary to prevent oral disease.As I got into dentistry and gravitated toward pediatrics, I saw real problems with access to care and oral health equity.As an educator, that was one of my passions, and it is something that I've gotten a lot of satisfaction out of working for change.There is still a long way to go, and I am enthusiastic about making a difference.
Source: North Carolina Medical Journal
DOI: 10.18043/001c.125716
Authors: Crystal Adams, Steven Cline
Institution: Foundation for Health Leadership & Innovation
Language: English
Subfield: Periodontics
Field: Dentistry
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404318316