Hygiene Tribune U.S. Edition

HYGIENE TRIBUNE The World’s Dental Hygiene Newspaper ·U.S. Edition www.dental-tribune.com The Commission on Dental Accredita- tion (CODA) voted in August to imple- ment the accreditation process for dental therapy education programs. The CODA adopted accreditation stan- dards for dental therapy education pro- grams at its Feb. 6 meeting. Subsequent to that, the CODA requested additional in- formation from communities of interest surrounding criteria 2 and 5 in its Princi- ples and Criteria Eligibility of Allied Den- tal Programs for Accreditation document: Criteria 2: Has the allied dental educa- tion area been in operation for a sufficient period of time to establish benchmarks and adequately measure performance? Criteria 5: Is there evidence of need and support from the public and professional communities to sustain educational pro- grams in the discipline? On Aug. 7 the CODA determined that these criteria had been met and voted to implement the accreditation process for dental therapy education programs. Cur- rently there are two dental therapy educa- tion programs in Minnesota. “The adoption and implementation of dental therapy education standards is a significant milestone,” said American Dental Hygienists’ Association President Jill Rethman, RDH, BA. “These new pro- viders are helping to address unmet oral health needs of the public and create a new career path for dental hygienists.” ADA, AGD response The American Dental Association and Academy of General Dentistry separately issued statements in news releases in re- sponse to the accreditation step by CODA. ADA: “The ADA believes it is in the best interests of the public that only dentists diagnose dental disease and perform sur- gical and irreversible procedures.” AGD: “Over the past three years, we have made it clear through testimony and written comments to CODA that the AGD has opposed the standards and their implementation. The standards require a curriculum of only three years post-high school, and then these nondentists are able to perform surgical and irreversible procedures without requiring the direct or indirect supervision of a dentist.” The ADA and AGD have repeatedly con- tested the contention that challenges with populations not receiving adequate oral health care cannot be addressed through expansion of existing programs. In response to the decision by CODA that criteria 2 and 5 had been met, AGD President W. Mark Donald, DMD, MAGD, CODA approves accreditation process for dental therapy education programs By Patricia Walsh, RDH Editor in Chief S ummer comes early to Colonial Williams- burg. Poppies, our na- tion’s brilliant symbol of remembrance, are in full bloom by Memorial Day. I just love the town’s wig- maker’s shop, which also would have doubled as the town barber shop. It was fashionable for well-to-do young ladies to have their heads shaved at such shops prior to be- ing fitted for a wig. By 1775, the year this living-history site is modeled on, the bar- ber no longer extracted teeth. In 1745, by royal decree, tooth extractions and blood- letting could be done only by physicians. It was the French king who first decided this was the right way to go; England’s George II soon followed suit. Thiswasmyfirstlongroad trip in many years. It struck me how simplified travel- ing had become. I gleefully zoomed past the Virginia toll booths at 65 mph with my EZ Pass. My “navigation lady” quickly directed me to a gas station when I was lost in the woods of Quantico. The Marriott app allowed me to check in for extra points in advance. Ten years ago, it is unlikely I would have understood what WiFi actually was, and an app was still a mystery. If our Colonial forbearers had spotted me staring down at a rectan- gular lighted object, it would have been an episode right out of Star Trek. My thoughts soon turned to the busi- ness of dentistry — and appointment making. If you were living in a small town in Virginia where there was no physician, the barber would still step up and extract Patricia Walsh, RDH Appointments in Williamsburg Commentary Travels in Williamsburg, Va., inspire Editor in Chief Patricia Walsh, RDH, to thoughts of no-shows, patients in pain and some of the latest offerings in scheduling apps. Photos/ Patricia Walsh, Hygiene Tribune ” See WILLIAMSBURG, page B2 yourtoothforyou,royaldecreeornot.Un- less, of course, his street pole was painted blue and white versus red and white. Blue and white stripes signified that the busi- ness did not involve blood. When patients are in pain, they wish to be seen right away. We live in a mo- bile society, and it’s become more and more common for people not to have an established dentist. I could write a book about societal changes and the uptick in last-minute dental-appointment cancella- tions. At one time or another, we have cer- tainly all muttered: “That no-show space could have been used by a patient with urgent needs.” said, “Clearly, the required criteria have not been met. Dental therapy educational programs are operational in only two states, and diagnoses and surgical pro- cedures by nondentists are illegal in 48 states. There is an obvious lack of wide- spread support from public or profes- sional communities for dental therapy programs.” Highlights in the approved standards Following are a few highlights from the approved dental therapy standards: Program length: The educational pro- gram must include at least three aca- demic years of full-time instruction or its equivalent at the postsecondary level. Advanced standing: The program may grant credit for prior coursework toward completion of the dental therapy pro- gram. This credit may be given to dental assistants, expanded function dental as- sistants and dental hygienists who are moving into a dental therapy program. Supervision: The dental therapist pro- vides care with supervision at a level specified by the state practice act. Scope of practice: Dental therapy’s minimal scope of practice is outlined in the standards by listing the competen- cies required within the dental therapy curriculum. Some of the assessment skills such as evaluation, charting, pa- tient referral and radiographs are listed. Preventive functions include, but are not limited to: subgingival scaling and dental prophylaxis; application of preventive agents; dispensing and administration of non-narcotic medications via oral or topical routes as prescribed by a licensed health-care provider based on state laws. Restorative/surgical procedures include simple extractions of primary teeth, fab- rication of temporary crowns, pulp cap- ping, preparation and placement of direct restorations. Relation to state statutes: All authorized functions of dental therapists in the state in which they practice must be included in the curriculum at the level, depth and scope required by the state. Program director: The dental therapy program director must be a licensed den- tist or a licensed dental therapist who possesses a master’s or higher degree and must have a full-time administrative ap- pointment as defined by the institution. You can learn more about the dental- therapy standards for accreditation on- line via www.adha.org/resources-docs/ CODA_Accreditation_Standards.pdf. Some things don’t change: Patients are looking for you. There are apps that help them find you and show up as scheduled October 2015 — Vol. 8, No. 5

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