Dental Responder Act Passes House
On Tuesday, Dec. 5 the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2405, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2011. Section 2 of the bill contains the entire text of H.R. 570, the Dental Emergency Responder Act of 2011, for which ASDA lobbied at National Dental Student Lobby Day in March 2011. This bill would include dentists and dental facilities in emergency disaster response framework. The bill still needs to be approved by the U.S. Senate.
ADA President Speaks on Barriers to Care
Dr. William Calnon, ADA president, speaks about barriers to care in a PBS NewsHour interview called "Millions of Americans Face Life Without
Dental Care." Watch it here.
Important National Board and DAT Update: Interruption of Testing Services
The American Dental Association and Joint Commission on National Dental
Examinations are engaged in a major technology project to update the
software systems that support the National Board Dental Examinations
(NBDE) and the Dental Admission Test (DAT). These changes will impact
all testing programs during the month of January 2012 and will affect
application processing, DENTPIN application and retrieval, score
processing and score report requests. Some changes to the exams include a
shorter application eligibility period, time limits for retesting as a
result of an appeal and information about examination irregularities may
now accompany score reports. Visit the specific exam websites: NBDE Part I, NBDE Part II or DAT.
Accreditation Standards for U.S. Dental Therapy Programs
The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) voted to set accreditation standards for U.S. dental therapy education programs based on a request from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. According to CODA, dental therapy education programs will not be eligible for accreditation by the commission until the standards are finalized and implemented, which will take a minimum of two years. In a recent ADA news article, ADA states “The ADA remains very clear in its position that only a dentist, by virtue of education, training and clinical experience, should diagnose oral disease and perform surgical/irreversible procedures.” For more information on this decision, click here.
ASDA Supports Lunch & Learns
A position paper, The Importance of Lunch & Learns to Dental Students, prepared by members of the ASDA Council on Education was written to summarize the benefits of attending these sessions.
Click here to read more