The ADAA/DANB Alliance Announces Publication of its Position Paper Addressing a Uniform National Model for the Dental Assisting Profession

September 16, 2005. The ADAA/DANB Alliance has completed a four-phase study of dental assisting core competencies. The results of this study and a comprehensive analysis of their implications are now available in the ADAA/DANB Alliance's Position Paper Addressing a Uniform National Model for the Dental Assisting Profession.

The DANB/ADAA Core Competencies Study Report (PDF), which reports the research results that form the foundation of the Position Paper, was published in June 2005 and is available here.

About the ADAA/DANB Alliance

The ADAA/DANB Alliance Committee Mission Statement and Goals were defined by the Committee at its July 2000 meeting.


Mission Statement
To come together to advance the dental assisting profession and to enhance the delivery of oral health care by presenting a united and strengthened voice that reflects all careers within dental assisting

Goals
1. To conduct research to determine the needs of the dental assisting profession at the grassroots level
2. To define which of these needs are within the purview of either or both organizations' mission statements
3. To attempt to address those needs that fall within either or both organizations' purviews
4. To move toward mandatory education and credentialing for dental assistants
5. To work together to enhance the delivery of oral health care
6. To maintain organizational autonomy while accomplishing goals 1 - 5


The purpose of the Dental Assisting Core Competencies project, as originally defined by this Committee at its November 2000 meeting:

Overall Purpose
To protect the public and improve patient access to oral health care, dental assistants should have the education appropriate for and be able to demonstrate competency in the services delivered. To this end, the American Dental Assistants Association and the Dental Assisting National Board, Inc. have developed a four-level list of core competencies for dental assistants, moving from basic support functions to more advanced chairside procedures, performed under the supervision of a licensed dentist.

At the request of the DANB Board of Directors following its Winter 2001 meeting, the Committee further refined the core competencies work into three specific purposes and two primary audience groups:

Specific purposes include to:
1. Provide empirical evidence of dental assisting competencies from basic to advanced in nature.
2. Recommend minimum requirements for performing these competencies.
3. Define and reinforce the notion of a viable career ladder for dental assistants.

Audiences/approaches include providing this information:
1. Proactively to state boards of dentistry,state dental associations, organized dentistry (i.e., ADAA state and local organizations, ADA, ADEA, AGD, AAMOS, AAO, etc.), dental-related corporations, DA-accredited dental schools and dental assisting programs, other (non-ADA-accredited) dental assisting programs, and high school tech-prep coordinators/work force educators, and other groups as appropriate.
2. On request to members of the oral health care team (specifically dentists), high school career counselors, and consumers.

To download newsletters from the ADAA/DANB Alliance meetings click below:
September 2005 Meeting
September 2004 Meeting



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