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Building Coalitions

ASDA is a founding member of the Coalition for Modernizing Dental Licensure (CMDL). The mission is to ensure patient safety, increase access to care, and promote professional mobility by modernizing the dental licensure process. There are over 120 coalition member and supporter organizations, which are national, state and local organizations and agencies committed to and actively engaged in advancing the mission and goals of the Coalition.

The Coalition's two major goals include:

  • To eliminate single-encounter, procedure-based patient examinations, replacing them with clinical assessments that have stronger validity and reliability evidence.
  • To increase licensure portability to allow for professional mobility and improved access to care.

MDL-logo-coalition-for-modernizing-dental-licensure

Licensure Portability

The CMDL and ASDA advocate for licensure portability: the ability to practice another state. 

The U.S. Department of Defense is working with organized dentistry to create a Dentist and Dental Hygiene (DDH) Compact. The purpose is to support the mobility of licensed dentists. This compact is a legally binding agreement among states that provides a way for dentists and dental hygienists to obtain privileges to practice in states where they are not licensed. These privileges are only granted to states participating in the compact.

The DDH compact is not a national license.

DDH Compact Map_2025

How it works:

  • The state legislature must adopt the compact language (presented in the form of a bill). 
  • Once a state adopts the bill, they are part of the compact. 
  • The dentist must apply for compact privileges to practice in a participating state.

The DDH compact took effect in April 2024, when the seventh state joined.The first compact commission meeting was held in August 2025 As of August 2025, legislation has been adopted in 3 states: Iowa, Washington and Tennessee, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Virginia, Ohio, and Maine. Legislation to join the compact is pending in several more states

View states' current status and learn more about the compact here.