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Your Association...In Action

Legislative Updates 

Updated: November 2024

The IDHA Legislative Committee is gearing up for the next Legislative Session in 2025.

The main goal of the committee is to work in conjunction with our Lobbyist and the Indiana Dental Association to ensure that the Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact passes.

Members of the IDHA Legislative Committee recently met with the IDA's Committee on Governmental Affairs. We are partnering to support the DDH Compact. We also discussed possible solutions to the hygiene workforce shortage. 

As a way of combating the workforce shortage- IDA  explored legislation to allow Foreign-Trained Dentists to obtain a license to practice dental hygiene. After discussion between our professional organizations, members, and State Board of Dentistry, the legislation has been tabled.

Complete the survey below to give feedback on current issues!

This year ADHA adopted the following policy. The IDHA General Assembly voted to not adopt a similar policy. Share your feedback on the policy  in the section labeled "BOTOX"

 

November 5, 2024

 

Dear ADHA Member,

 

The American Dental Association (ADA) House of Delegates recently voted on and passed Resolutions 401, 413 and 514B, that aim to remove faculty-to-student ratios in dental hygiene programs and allow dental students and foreign trained dentists to practice dental hygiene in the United States, without passing a state licensing exam. We believe these resolutions pose significant risks to educational and professional standards and patient safety.

 

As the leading voice for dental hygienists in the U.S., the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA®) leadership voiced opposition to these resolutions mid-October, in the form of testimony submitted to the relevant ADA House of Delegates Reference Committees and through an open letter to the healthcare community, outlining our substantive objections and urging the House of Delegates to reject these proposals and focus on solutions that respect the distinct professional roles within dentistry and dental hygiene.

 

I sent a letter to the ADA on Friday, November 2, 2024, expressing ADHA’s disappointment at the passage of these resolutions. The framework of these resolutions purportedly addresses workforce issues, but the resolutions effectively compromise educational quality, established standards, patient safety and appropriate pathways to practice.

 

Dental hygienists face substantial workplace challenges, such as reduced time for patient care, overburdened schedules, and emerging workforce models that potentially threaten to compromise educational and licensure standards. The proposed changes fail to address oral-systemic health nor the underlying issues that are driving many hygienists to leave the profession. The proposed measures outlined in these resolutions threaten professional integrity and patient outcomes, and fundamentally undermine the dental hygiene profession.

 

ADHA strongly believes that rather than diminishing professional standards and undermining a complementary profession, constructive efforts should be directed toward improving workplace culture, enhancing professional development opportunities, and offering competitive benefits. These measures can address dental hygiene recruitment and retention without compromising the integrity of the profession and can protect the public from potentially inadequate care by under-trained or unlicensed individuals.

 

Creating practice environments that foster professional autonomy and empower dental hygienists to fully embrace their role will not only lead to better health outcomes for the public but will also improve workforce issues. When dental hygienists have greater control over their environment and practice, they will have greater career contentment, sense of purpose and professional longevity.

 

ADHA is currently addressing these objectives through active initiatives, and we have invited the ADA to meet and discuss partnering on these constructive efforts.

 

Sincerely,

 

Erin Haley-Hitz, RDH, BSDH, MS, FADHA, MAADH

ADHA President 2024-2025

Greetings from ISBD Hygiene Member- Twyla Rader, LDH

Get an update on the state of Dental Hygiene

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Legislation Feedback Survey

Licensure Compact, Botox, Vaccine Administration, Foreign-Trained DSS- Hygiene Licensure, Workforce Shortage, Access Practice Agreements

Council of State Governements: Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact

Licensure portability is coming!

The Council of State Governments (CSG) is partnering with the Department of Defense (DoD), the American Dental Association (ADA), and the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) to support the mobility of licensed dental hygienists through the development of a new interstate compact. This compact will create reciprocity among participant states, and reduce the barriers to license portability. As a practitioner, you will need to complete continuing education units in the state where you hold a qualifying license to maintain your qualifying license. You will not need to complete units for states where you hold compact privileges.

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Dental hygienists are eligible to participate in the compact if they have:

  • An active, unencumbered license in any state participating in the compact agreement

  • Passed the National Board Examination or other exam accepted by the compact commission

  • Completed a clinical assessment

  • Graduated from an education program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation

  • No disqualifying criminal history

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Video on Work Force shortage coming soon

The dental hygiene workforce shortage

The shortage of hygienists in Indiana is a problem for our patients and our employers..

Help us develop solutions to this on going problem!

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BOTOX

In 2024, the American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) House of Delegates adopted the following policy:

"The American Dental Hygienist's Association supports dental hygienists performing therapeutic and cosmetic injections within the dental hygiene scope of practice"

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The Legislative Process

This document gives a visual breakdown of how a bill becomes a law!

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