SOS to Deyalsingh – Amend Dental Profession Act

THE EDITOR: We are asking Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh to ensure that the professional body of the TT graduates of dental hygienists and therapists are enrolled expeditiously.

We are appealing to the minister to amend and legislate the long-standing Dental Profession Act of 1980. We have written several letters and thus far our lengthy wait has been to no avail.

Since 2016, when the first batch of students completed the programme, we expected that the Dental Act would be changed to allow for employment. The ministry, however, seems to be dragging its feet to bring the amendments to completion.

Dental hygienists and dental therapists are a very relevant group of oral health care providers who educate and treat the public in dental institutions about their oral health status.

Through the GATE funding programme, most students were afforded $210,000 to complete the three-year bachelors of science dental hygiene and therapy programme at UWI's School of Dentistry, St Augustine.

At present, the majority of us are not employed to function in our full capacity, or not at all, in private or public dental clinics.

Many health centres have dental departments, but not enough dental health care professionals to treat the multitude of patients. These centres are in need of a hygienist to facilitate chronic disease patients and there is an urgent need for more therapists to treat children.

So again, we are appealing to Minister Deyalsingh to quickly bring the Dental Profession (Amendment) Act on board so that dental hygienist and dental therapist graduates can be enrolled with the Dental Council to perform our rightful duties.

TT Dental Hygiene and
Dental Therapy Association