News and Resources for the Staff of CAO Members

• Reg's on Registered Orthodontic Assistant (ROA) Delayed
• Coronal Polishing and X-Ray Training Required for RDA’s
• Continuing Education Units for Doctors and Staff

Reg's on Registered Orthodontic Assistant (ROA) Delayed

Recent talks between numerous dental organizations, including CAO, working to develop regulations governing the training of ROA’s and other specialty assistant categories, have concluded that a final agreement that would allow existing dental assisting education programs to conform to new standards could not be reached by the January 1, 2007 legislative deadline.

We expect legislation to be approved that postpones that deadline to January 1, 2009.

For much of this year, CAO leaders have been working with CDA, the dental assistant alliance, the Committee on Dental Assistants (COMDA), and the Dental Board regarding a new specialty assistant training curriculum.

In early negotiations, on-the-job training (OJT) was eliminated as an educational pathway.  Since that time, with the insistence of a number of dental specialty groups including CAO, the “in-office” educational model has been reconsidered as a training option. CAO continues to insist on this alternative training pathway.

The school-based program proposed by the assisting community relies primarily on didactic and pre-clinical education, with less emphasis on practical experience.

Overall, CAO has proposed the implementation of regulations that will define the education and training requirements necessary to achieve minimum competence in the duties a registered orthodontic assistant is authorized to perform. Such an approach takes into account the combination of didactic and practical instruction, clinical training, and supervised work experience, that when taken together are most likely to provide the greatest number of opportunities for improving dental assisting skills efficiently.

“The goal is to encourage entrance into the dental profession, create a career ladder, redesign the education and training to be responsive to the contemporary practice of dentistry, maximize office productivity, and reduce the need for dentists to provide additional training to assistants” said Cathy Mudge, assistant vice president of CDA Public Policy.

Those who achieve RDA status before January 1, 2008 will be allowed to perform all specialty assistant duties, with a few exceptions that will require additional training, including the selecting, pre-positioning, curing, and removing of brackets. And those seeking ROA status will be required to successfully complete the ROA training and not the standard RDA courses.

After Jan. 1, 2008, those seeking RDA status will be required to complete the training programs that teach all the new duties for each specialty assistant category. Again, those seeking ROA category will only be required to complete the ROA training and not that for the RDA.

The project of developing specialty assistant categories began about ten years ago when COMDA started a state mandated review of dental assisting. Little progress was made over the years until scope of practice legislation was passed in 2002 and discussions began shortly thereafter about specialty dental assisting categories.

CAO leaders believe the new ROA program has the potential to increase the pool of qualified orthodontic staff, which will positively affect access to dental care. However, the debate over the regulatory language will ultimately decide the likelihood of this increased orthodontic (and other specialty) staff availability.

Assuming the deadline is postponed to January 1, 2008, training programs will begin accepting students soon after that date. Although we expect training to be available in early 2008, the Dental Board will not be able to issue licenses for the specialty assistants until January 2009.

Check the CAO website for the most current information: www.caortho.org

More on RDA Licensure Requirements.

Coronal Polishing and X-Ray Training Required for RDA’s

According to the Committee on Dental Auxiliaries, beginning January 1, 2006, those with RDA licenses will be required to produce proof of x-ray and coronal polishing training in order to renew those licenses.  Licenses will not be renewed without proof of this training.

Such proof for coronal polishing training must be:

1. coronal polishing training sticker on license (none were ever issued for x-ray training, or

2. certificate or other documentation from institution of training, or

3. letter of affidavit from instructor who taught training.

Proof of x-ray training must be:

1. certificate or other documentation from institution of training, or

2. letter of affidavit from instructor who taught training.

A list of training courses may be viewed on the COMDA website at http://www.comda.ca.gov/courses.html.

Continuing Education Units for Doctors and Staff

There are proposed California regulations which would allow Doctors and Staff to earn up to twenty percent of their CE Credits from Category II or non-clinical topics, including new topics such as HIPAA and practice management.

The California Dental Association has presented a request for more flexibility with the topics that would qualify for Category II credit.