You would think that the American Dental Association would be supportive of efforts to help remote Alaskans fight tooth decay. But anyone familiar with the concept of rent seeking shouldn't be surprised at the situation explored by Reason magazine:

Some 60,000 indigenous Alaskans living in villages accessible only by plane, boat, or snowmobile received little dental care until the Alaskan Native Tribal Health Consortium decided to break a few rules. Following a model that is popular in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and 42 other countries, the consortium sent tribal members to an accredited two-year dental program in New Zealand, where they learned how to fill cavities and clean and pull teeth.

Upon completion of the program, the members returned to their villages as certified dental therapists, capable of providing basic dental services. The therapists have since helped to bring down a rate of tooth decay that is almost three times the national average. But their efforts were nearly undone by the American Dental Association (ADA), which objected to anyone other than a licensed dentist conducting "irreversible dental procedures," such as pulling teeth and filling cavities. By the ADA's standards, a licensed dentist is one that has completed an undergraduate degree, a doctorate of dental medicine, or a doctorate of dental surgery, and has passed a statewide exam.

The article goes on to discuss other efforts by the ADA to clamp down on dental competition. But it ends on a hopeful note:

Despite the ADA's best efforts at controlling the cost of dental care, the tide may be turning. In May, reports The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia (whose dental problems rival those of its neighbor, Kentucky) passed a bill that will allow dental hygienists—whose services cost a fraction of those of a licensed dentist—to practice outside of a dentist's office and without a dentist being present. Legislators passed the bill—in spite of loud ADA objections—after journalist Eric Eyre wrote a series of articles detailing the state's abysmal dental care.

Bills like the one in West Virginia create new jobs while lowering medical costs. And there is perhaps a bigger benefit: putting smiles on the faces of millions of Americans who, thanks in part to the monopolistic behavior of the ADA, are literally too embarrassed to open their mouths.