WASHINGTON -- The American Dental Association has softened its once-vehement opposition to an Alaska Native health program that sends specially trained health aides to drill and extract teeth in Alaska villages, where severe tooth decay is epidemic.

"We still believe that patients are best served by a licensed dentist," said William Prentice, lobbyist for the ADA in Washington. "But we're trying to do everything we can to try to respond to the tribes' concerns on getting dental care in frontier Alaska."