The August JADA article by Dr. Walter Psoter and colleagues, "National Emergency Response Programs for Dental Health Care Professionals" (
Psoter WJ, Park PJ, Boylan RJ, Morse DE, Glotzer DL. JADA 2008; 139[8]:1067–1073[Abstract/Free Full Text]
), is timely and has great merit. However, as one who spent two years attempting to define the role of dental professionals in large-scale disasters in my county, the reality is not optimistic.
Unless a dental professional is employed by an institution, and therefore paid to attend disaster planning conferences, one usually cannot afford to be away from a private office to devote several uncompensated hours per year to meetings and training sessions. From the fact that 74 percent of Hawaiian dentists in a survey said they were willing to participate in the response to a bioterrorist attack,1 one can speculate that 74 percent of all U.S. dentists most likely would volunteer in a community-wide emergency.
Until states, counties and cities reimburse private-practice dental professionals for attending planning meetings and mock disaster exercises, the few dentists who volunteer and who are assigned a specific task in an actual widespread disaster will be those who are paid by their respective institutions.
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