Posted: 12.17.2010

This dental pain isn't in your mouth - its in rural communities around Wisconsin where trying to find a dentist is liking finding a needle in a haystack.

Marsha Siik knows all about it.  In her interview with Pam Jahnke, she says she's been working to bring dentist to rural Wisconsin since 2005 when she joined the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health.  It's not easy.  Siik tells Pam Jahnke that one of the big complications is the reimbursement levels for rural dentists.  Unlike their rural doctor counterparts - rural dentists are usually on their own as a stand-alone business, and their reimbursement rate only averages 30 percent.  That means that those practices could suffer financially even if their waiting room is full of needy patients!

"I get calls from people saying, 'I've got a tooth ache and Madison says its going to be six months before I can get in - what do I do - where can I go'.  It's tough.  We've seen an increase in the number of people that go to emergency rooms of hospitals with tooth infections.  They need help for their mouth and teeth - and its the place of last resort for them,"  Siik continues, "Sometimes the hospital will refer them to another provider - but they're really not equipped to handle that kind of medicine."

Siik tells Jahnke she's currently working with between 15-17 community centers around the state that also have satellite locations to try and maximize any rural dentists available - but that's a problem too.  "Some of these rural practices are so busy that they end up only treating children and maybe pregnant woment,"  Siik says, "Men of all ages are generally left out."

It's not just the compensation level that complicates placing dentists in rural Wisconsin - its lifestyle too.  "If they want to grab a Starbucks every day and go to the opera on the weekend - they're not going to want to go very far into rural Wisconsin,"  Siik says.  "What I look for are dentist candidates that appreciate the outdoors - they hunt, fish - snowmobile - just enjoy the outdoors in general.  That's our best recruiting tool."  

So where does Siik look and find candidates?  She says she's had good luck recruiting from the University of Minnesota where students are already familiar with the elements and may come from a rural background.  Siik says she'll follow up on any lead though!  "I got a call from someone in Arizona that was originally from Wisconsin - they wanted to come home, and I was happy to try and help that happen."  Siik also helped a dentist from Alaska relocate to Ashland Wisconsin - where the sheer possibility that she'd consider practicing there caused the city to hold a parade in her honor!  The community actually purchased a vacant building for her, and sold it to the dentist for a dollar - just to get her established in the community.  Today, her practice is so successful that she's adding another practioner.

Siik also suggests that rural communities think about growing their own dentists.  "It's a long term approach to a solution, that's for sure,"  Siik says, "But the buy local approach is really the best.  Talking to elementary kids about career options in their community like being a doctor or a dentist are the best way to try and increase our supply for the future."

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