Listen to the Audio Interview
Interview Highlights
- The Non-Insured Health Benefits Technical Working Group (NIHB TWG) is a forum for discussion at which CDA, NIHB, and representatives from the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami the national representative body for Inuit people meet to discuss the specific implementation of policies at NIHB, surrounding oral health care delivery.
- The two focus areas of the meeting
- The effect of the consolidation of the predetermination centre for NIHB from the regional dental offices to Ottawa.
- The update to the endodontic trial project which allows endodontic treatment on premolars and first molars without predetermination.
- This is an important issue because there have been reports from both dentists and First Nations and Inuit representatives that the consolidation of the predetermination centre has resulted in a reduction of treatment being authorized under the NIHB program.
- Another area of concern is the authorization of full cuspal coverage restorations for endodontically treated teeth. There has been a drastic decrease in the number of successful predeterminations in some areas with the consolidation of the predetermination centre.
- The First Nations and Inuit people of Canada are a large cohort of our society and the Canadian Dental Association is working with the NIHB to ensure that First Nations and Inuit people get the same level of oral health care as other Canadians.
Call to action
- Dentists can perform endodontic treatment on premolar and first molar teeth as long as they follow the guidelines set out by NIHB.
- it is very important that individual dentists document difficulties they have with NIHB and forward them to their representative organizations so we can bring those to our discussions with the NIHB TWG.