Because villages in remote areas may go many months without a visit from an itinerant dentist, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has started a dental health aide program--the first of its kind in the United States. Dental health aides spend two years learning basic dental care, and are then stationed in a remote community; they offer preventative services and perform basic procedures like fillings and extractions, so that when the dentist comes to town he can focus on more complex dental problems. ×