Coalition advocates for bill supporting dental training programs

The ADA is signing onto a coalition letter supporting legislation that would allow certain full-time dental faculty members to exclude the amount of their loan forgiveness from federal income taxes. 

The Dental Loan Repayment Assistance Act, H.R. 1758 and S. 1080, was reintroduced by Reps. Jeff Van Drew, D.M.D., R-N.J., and Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Specifically, it would allow those participating in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s Dental Faculty Loan Repayment Program to exclude the amount of their loan forgiveness from income taxes, thus stretching resources toward dental training programs. The coalition urged Congress to advance and pass the bill through budget reconciliation or “another timely legislative vehicle.”

“Attracting dentists into faculty positions ensures the next generation of trained dentists can enter the workforce to serve patients in rural and underserved areas. A shortage of dental faculty is crippling to the dentist workforce pipeline,” said the letter, signed by the Organized Dentistry Coalition and other oral health advocacy organizations. 

The Dental Faculty Loan Repayment Program was initially established to help accredited academic dental institutions recruit and retain qualified faculty in dental schools, residencies and advanced education programs in dentistry.

“Recruiting and retaining dental faculty is a significant challenge, given the staggering level of student loan debt and income disparity so many dentists face after school is completed,” the coalition said.