National emergency response programs for dental health care professionals.

BACKGROUND Members of the established public health systems and medical community must understand that, in medical surge events, members of the dental profession and other non-traditional disaster health care personnel are an additional source of assistance in response activities. METHODS The authors relied on hands-on experience, expert consultations, literature reviews and Web searches to identify disaster response training programs appropriate for members of the dental profession and other health care personnel. RESULTS The authors identified multiple governmental and professional disaster training programs. CONCLUSIONS Five key national-level programs address the training and organization of health care professionals to support a large-scale disaster program. Because of their training and skills, dental professionals would be valuable additions to these programs and could make significant contributions if natural disasters and/or terrorist events were to occur.