During the second annual American Dental Association (ADA), Dentist and Student Lobby Day, more than 500 students joined dentists and received lessons in lobbying, and turned those lessons into action.
Of the students who attended the event, 12 UTRGV pre-dental students were among the attendees.
Kathryn De Leon, a biology senior and president of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) at UTRGV, said Lobby Day offered a unique experience.
“We are not dental students or dentists yet, but having the opportunity to see the issues in dentistry early on before we are even submerged entirely in the dental field is really unique because, by starting early, we have a better grasp of what we are going to get ourselves into,” De Leon said. “By learning how to lobby, and learning about the issues at this point, it will just make us better dental students, and better able to lobby as dental students in the future.”
Thomas “Tommy” Harrison, chair-elect of the American Dental Political Action Committee (ADPAC), was among the dentists at the event who assisted the UTRGV undergraduates, whom he referred to as the “future of dentistry.”
“When we go and speak to elected officials, be that in Washington, D.C., or the Legislature at Austin in Texas, the legislators always prefer to hear from the dental students because they’re young voters,” Harrison said. “They are going to be voting longer than I will. They just tend to give a fresh perspective.”
He said it’s important to be inclusive to students.
“When we talk about the issues, we make sure that we include the dental students in the speaking of the issues because they’re well-educated,” Harrison said. “It doesn’t take them long to get up to speed on a particular issue, and they present well. It really makes it so that our whole presentation goes better when we have younger pre-dental and dental students going with us to our visits to the congressmen.”
The students lobbied Congress on the following issues, according to a news release from the ADA:
—Student Loan Programs and the Higher Education Act: Students advocated for preserving public loan forgiveness programs and extending the period of deferment for repaying loans.
—Action for Dental Health Act: The bill would allow organizations to qualify for oral health grants administered by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). These grants would enable organizations to provide dental services to underserved populations.
—Opioids: The ASDA and the ADA lobbied for legislation that will limit prescriptions for acute pain and improve drug-monitoring programs.
—Dental and Optometric Care Access Act of 2017 or DOC Access Act: The bill would prohibit non-covered services provisions in dental and vision plans.
—McCarran-Ferguson repeal for health insurance: The bill would authorize the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce the full range of antitrust laws against health insurance companies engaged in anti-competitive conduct.
De Leon found the opioid crisis to be of concern.
“The dental field is one of the few that is taking action to try and [limit this problem], because people like dental surgeons can be prescribing opioids that can lead to addiction,” she said.
De Leon also said dentists should play a part in resolving the issue.
“Between the teen years and the age of 24 … you are more likely to be become addicted to opioids,” she said. “If somebody is … getting their wisdom teeth taken out, and they’re prescribed an opioid, they can end up becoming addicted. And the dental field is trying to limit this.”
Harrison said the student loan programs are significant because the programs help ensure the funds needed to attend dental school.
“The average debt of a graduating dental student from dental school now is $287,000,” he said. “That’s the average debt. So that means, if you stop to think of it, some people owe no money when they graduate dental school. … Some people have over $500,000 in debt.”
Pre-dental student Arianna Cazares, a biology junior and event committee chair for ASDA, also attended the event.
“It was a great experience. I got to learn about the five different issues right now in the dental field, and I got to network with dentists and dental students across the nation,” Cazares said.
She said dentists, such as Harrison, help out the group and took the students “under their wings.”
Cazares said knowing how to lobby is important for students.
“I think it helps to know beforehand, before becoming a dentist, to know the issues, to already have a firsthand experience, and to know how to approach congressmen,” she said.
De Leon said she believes Lobby Day has had an impact on Congress.
“Our group went to … [Congressman] Vicente Gonzalez’s office,” she said. “… We met with his staff, and he had already co-signed some of the issues [we were lobbying]. And so the ones he had not co-signed on, we spoke to him about those, and thanked him for the ones he had already supported.”
Harrison sees the impact of Lobby Day as being incremental.
“I look at it more in terms of continuing to build on the relationship with our elected officials,” he said. “Our lobbyists will tell you, as they told me, that their ability to get into the congressman’s office … they are able to get in those offices and discuss issues much better if we hold an event like we just held.”
