The Compliance Divas Podcast
Our podcast covers current topics such as infection prevention and control, OSHA and HIPAA compliance for dentistry. We discuss the latest regulatory information, answer frequently asked questions and give suggestions for dental practices to make compliance easy and sustainable. The Compliance Divas are a trusted source for consistent, accurate information based upon current guidelines, standards, science, and recommendations.
The Compliance Divas Podcast
#123 DANB Turns 75 Years!
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In the episode, the Divas welcome special guests from the Dental Assisting National Board to celebrate their 75th year along with DICAM. Learn about all the exciting courses and events with DANB and the DALE Foundation. This is one episode everyone in your office will want to hear!
- DANB: https://www.danb.org
- DALE Foundation: https://www.dalefoundation.org/
Welcome.
SPEAKER_00I'm Leslie Cannon. I'm Mary Gavoni.
SPEAKER_03I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Juan. And together we are the Compliance Divas.
SPEAKER_04Hello and welcome to the Compliance Divas podcast. I'm Mary Gavoni and I'll be the moderator for this episode. And this is a very special episode to all of the Divas. Remember that the Compliance Divas navigate the regulatory world to bring clarity to compliance for our dental practice listeners. You can subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedivas.com. Any resources that we mentioned during this episode can be found on the ComplianceDivas website or on the show notes in your favorite podcast app. You can also submit questions by email to support at the compliancedivas.com. So I mentioned earlier that this is a special episode for several reasons. First of all, we are celebrating this month DICAM or Dental Infection Control Awareness Month, and dental assistants are very much a part of, and in many cases, the infection control coordinator in practices. And we're also, because we have two special celebrities with us from the Dental Assisting National Board, we're going to talk about infection prevention and control roles for dental assistants and credentialing. And we're celebrating the fact that Danby, as we call it, the Dental Assisting National Board, has now been in existence for 75 years. So they have a long history of certifying dental assistants in infection control and radiography and general chair side. And so we'll talk about some of those. So let me introduce our first guest, who is Laura Skarnoulis, who is the Danby Executive Director. Laura is the Chief Executive Officer of Danby and the Dale Foundation, which is the educational arm of Danby, a role that she has held since 2021. She spearheaded the development of the organization's 2023 to 2028 strategic plan, which centers on supporting dental assistant workforce development and elevating the profession. Laura came to Danby and the Dale Foundation after serving for more than eight years as the chief operating officer or COO of the American Board of Medical Specialties, an organization that establishes the certification and continuing certification of certification standards for its 24 member boards. Prior to that, Laura was the chief operating and financial officer for the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. Laura has a Bachelor of Science degree in accountancy from Northern Illinois, Illinois University and is a CPA. Wow, what a wealth of experience that you bring to Danby. Welcome and welcome to the podcast, Laura.
SPEAKER_06Mary, thank you so much for having me. And it is my absolute pleasure to be here today with you.
SPEAKER_04Yay! And our next guest is Gwen or Gwenevere Jucket. I love your name, Gwen. Um, I shared earlier that I had a babysitter who was my favorite babysitter of all time when I was a young girl, and her name was Gwinevere, and we called her Gwennie. And so you make me think of that very fond memory. So Gwen has a very long list of credentials through Danby and through ADOM. She's a fellow of ADOM and she is a fellow of the American Dental Assistance Association. She's been a Dale Foundation board uh member of the Board of Trustees since 2016 and is currently the immediate past president of the Dan, the Dale Board. Um, Gwen started her career in 1990 and has had a passion for dentistry ever since. She works for a private dental practice in Middlefield, Ohio as an expanded function uh dental auxiliary or an EFTA and the dental office manager, as if you don't have enough to do. Um Gwen earned Danby's CDA credential in 1996 and holds, as I mentioned earlier, several other credentials. And we'll put all of those um credential definitions in our resources because I think there may be many listeners interested in those. She is a member of the Ohio, Ohio EFTA Association, the American Dental Assistance Association, American Association of Dental Office Managers, and OSAP, yay, Gwen. And she is a graduate of an EFTA program at Case Western University in Cleveland. She's a registered dental assistant in the state of Ohio as an EFTA and a believer in lifelong learning, and has completed her clinical fellowship with ADAA and ADOM.
SPEAKER_01So welcome, Gwen. Thank you so much, Mary. I'm so excited to be here with all of you. Oh, fabulous. Well, let's get started.
SPEAKER_04We have lots of questions we want to ask both Laura and Gwen about Danby. And we're going to start with Olivia. Um, and she's gonna talk a little bit about credentialing.
SPEAKER_03Welcome, ladies. We're so happy to have you. Laura, this is the first time that I remember seeing dental assistants and being in the highest demand ever. So it's really some exciting times to see this profession grow and to finally get the respect that it's so so well deserving of. But Laura, would you tell our listeners about Danby and also the certifications that are available for dental assistance?
SPEAKER_06Yes, um, I'm happy to. And I agree, I feel like dental assisting is having a bit of a moment right now, and um, we're really excited about that, and um, we're here to support and elevate that as much as we can. So the dental assisting national board, or DAMBI, is the national exam and certification board for dental assistance. Um, it is recognized by the ADA as the certification body for dental assistance, um, and we offer a variety of exams and certification for dental assisting at all stages of their career. Um, many dental assistants, as you well know, start um with taking the radiation health and safety exam. Um, and it's recognized and required or required in many states. In fact, 38 states plus um DC either recognize or require uh dambe's exams, exams, or certifications. And we can talk a little bit more about that later. But the RHS exam, the radiation health and safety exam, is really the uh the entry point. Uh and in 2022, we administered over 12,000 RHS exams. So that's quite quite a number. Um, and again, the demand for dental assistance um continues to drive drive those numbers. Um, there's a lot of places that people can start or finish related to dental assisting. Um, people can become a certified dental assistant, which is what we are recognizing within celebrating, which has been in existence for 75 years. Um, this certified dental assistant is a very um esteemed uh credential. Uh, we also offer um a certified orthodontic assistant as well as other expanded functions related to restorative or uh preventative functions. We are most excited about our um our recent additions to our certification offerings in infection control. And in collaboration with OSAP, uh we uh we launched last year the uh CDIPC and the DISIPC. So those are uh certifications in infection control and prevention uh for either clinicians or non-clinicians. And last year we offered um we we had issued, excuse me, 270 of those certifications since it started. And a little spoiler alert, we're gonna have an opportunity for a lot more people to become certified next year as we are putting the final touches on some scholarship opportunities to come. So really excited about that. So there's lots of opportunities for people to um expand their knowledge base and get certified. Uh, and we have more work to come on that, which I'll share a little bit more later as well.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, Laura. Very impressive with those statistics, and it's just a great feeling to know that this career is in demand. I was a dental assistant many years ago, and it's just exciting to see that we're finally getting the recognition that was so well deserved. And I'm also excited about the expanded duties dental assistant. They are in demand everywhere. Absolutely. It's a great, great certification. And also the fact for infection control, it's so needed. And you know, like any profession, Laura, I mean, those are there are those that just get a job, but then there are those that make a career out of this. And I think Danby is the pathway for those individuals that want to truly be a professional and they need those designations.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I I I agree. If I could just expand on that for a quick second, that I have to say that being in this with Danby for the last two years, I have been absolutely blown away by the level of commitment and passion that the certified dental assistants and dental assistants in general, but in particular, the certified dental assistants have for their patients, have for their the practices, and have for each other. It's really quite remarkable.
SPEAKER_04It is. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. And one of the things, uh, and maybe you can touch on briefly some of your activities related to this, one of the things that we're seeing so much in the in the news is this emphasis on um changing regulations and so forth to enhance the dental workplace. And I see dentistry and I see dental hygiene um involved in that. Is Danby involved at all with bringing the dental assistant component to that? That concerns me a lot because dental assistants aren't even mentioned in many of those activities.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you know, and a lot of times they're not mentioned because they're not actually licensed uh in most states, right? So the dental boards and the dental societies um are primarily focused on um the dentists and the hygienists. And they have they have their own um uh priorities, uh, but we are a dental team, right? And so, you know, the advocacy bodies that the hygienists and the dentists have, we're actually um talking with them and working with them uh to really be promoting the entire dental team into including dental assistants. And you know, dental assistants represent the majority of the dental team, over 380,000 dental assistants uh in practice today, um, and making sure that their voices are heard. Um, just this past year, we spent some time um in a state that was looking to significantly impact uh the trajectory of the dental assisting profession with some not very favorable bills towards uh dental assistance or to patient safety. Um and we really were uh successful in that effort because dental assistants came out and they advocated for themselves. And other members of the dental team were advocating for the importance of dental assistance, not only about the outcome of those bills, but the dental assistance being around the table and being part of the discussions about their profession. And that's what we're about. That's what we're going to be continuing to work on. We have a really great new strategic plan, as you mentioned. And a big portion of that is talking about what is needed for the profession uh throughout throughout all the states, as well as championing the profession and being uh getting people to advocate for dental assistance, being a conduit for that. We're not going to be the advocates for dental assistance. Dental assistants are gonna be the advocates for dental assistance and um creating that sense of community and opportunity is something that's very much on our uh roadmap right now.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Laura. That's great information. Linda, we're gonna switch gears with you and Gwen now and talk about the Dale Foundation.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely, Mary. And I would just like to welcome our guest as well. I'm excited to celebrate the 75th anniversary as the only diva with the least dental assisting experience before I went into hygiene school. I just have long felt that dental assistants are the backbone of any practice and they're the best kept secret. So we're thrilled to help um champion them in this in this podcast. What I'd like to ask you a question. So we just heard all about Danby, but can you also share with our listeners what the Dale Foundation is and some of its important functions, please?
SPEAKER_02Yes, Linda. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to tell you about the Dale Foundation. The Dale Foundation is the official Damby affiliate dedicated to online education, certificate programs, and other initiatives such as scholarships and research. We offer a variety of educational materials to help dental assistants and other dental team members advance their education and reach their career goals. I do want to add in September, in honor of Dental Infection Control Awareness Month, we are having a special offer of 20% off of all of our infection control education, including continuing education articles, the dental infection control certificate program that we developed with OSAP, and exam preparations for Dambees infection control exam. Please visit our website at DaleFoundation.org to learn more. I invite everybody to go through our website, see our catalog, see all of our offerings. They are robust and there is something for everybody there.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Gwen. That's really helpful. And for our listeners, that 20% off may make a big difference to them in terms of infection control um education and other types of dental assisting education, and perhaps to get their CDIPC credential. So, Leslie, we're gonna call on you. You and I have been um certified for many, many, many years. And so I'd like you and Gwen to kind of um discuss between the two of you um why you became a CDA, and you and Gwen have also completed the credentialing process for um CDIPC. So can you share some of your experiences, Leslie, and then we'll have Gwen chime in as well.
SPEAKER_00Well, Mary, yes, I have a number of years of experience in dentistry. I'm actually going on 51 years as a dental professional. And uh in uh 1977, I became a registered dental assistant in California. But uh in 2005, I was asked by the Dental Assisting National Board to uh assist with writing some of the infection control questions for the infection control examination. And in order to do that, I needed to also obtain my CDA, which I was so glad to become a certified dental assistant. So I was a registered dental assistant, but a certified dental assistant is recognized all over the country, whereas a registered dental assistant, I'm only recognized in California for that. So I've been in CDA for 17 years now, and it has been a great experience. It's uh easy to keep my licensure up with the many different continuing education uh resources that are available, and I was so excited to be among the first to get the uh CD, the certified in dental infection prevention and control certificate. I did not know that there was only 270 of us. I include that uh designation on all of my information. So I have all these acronyms off after my name, but I also include the designation and the potential of becoming certified in dental infection control and prevention whenever I talk about infection control and recommend that someone from a dental practice take that step to become certified. I heard from once from the dental assisting national board that the uh responsibility for infection control falls usually on the shoulders of at least one dental assistant in the practice. And I believe that was the result of a study that was conducted. So, with that being the case, certainly anyone who would want to assume that role or who is in that role can rely on Danby for all the education and resources that they would need in order to fulfill that educational part of knowing what to do as a certified dental assistant or as a person who's in charge of infection control.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, Leslie. Gwen, is there anything that you would like to add to um what Leslie has shared about the value of the credential and also the infection control certification?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Leslie, I'm a lot like you. I I got my CDA because I needed it to advance in my career. So I have been a CDA for 26 years. It was a requirement to become an EFTA in my state. Um, it has also given me the confidence, the skills, and the knowledge to know that I could have done anything in dentistry if I just put my mind to it. Um it was the first of many steps taken to get me where I am today, and I am forever grateful. In my state, I have my coronal polish, I have my fluoride certificates. Again, I am an AFTA, but I live really close to the border of Pennsylvania. And I grew up and I have family in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. I chose the CDA route of certification, also earning my CPFDA and my CRFDA because, first of all, it keeps my options open if I move out of Ohio. I want to be able to easily continue my work. Secondly, it's a commitment to my profession and an investment in myself as I do yearly continuing education and research on these topics. I too was one of the first of many to get my certification in dental infection prevention and control. For me, it's a milestone in my career. It gives me a sense of pride and commitment. You know, 33 years ago, I was chairside trained by a wonderful doctor who taught me so much about dentistry. But what he did not teach me was infection control. And as a young chair side-trained dental assistant, you really don't know what you don't know. In the years past, I educated myself and I learned just how important infection control is. I will say to CDIPC, it is a rigorous exam on important infection control elements, and I am so grateful that I passed it. I also learned from it. You know, I've incorporated uh like a detailed waterline safety protocol in my practice. Can you believe it's not required in my state? Um, and I've also incorporated so many other things that promote, above all, patient safety, but also team safety, the safety of myself, and it protects my practice. So for me, uh the CDIPC, it was it was that extra step that I took that meant so much to me. And um I have it on everything. I have it on my website, I have it on all of my social media, I have it on everything. So I'm so proud of it. So congratulations to you too.
SPEAKER_05Mary, I would like to ask uh Gwyn a question because you you and she both mentioned the initials C D I C P. And while I know what it is, Leslie knows what it is, we all know what it is, the divas know. I would like to just enlighten our audience in case they're not familiar with those credentials, what it is, because with something that's not new, it's been around five-ish years, maybe. I guess I don't know, it's been around in the works for a few years. But uh let's uh Laura, Gwen, could you tell our listeners what that stands for?
SPEAKER_02CDIPC is certified in dental infection prevention and control. And then there is a dental industry specialist, DIS IPC, and that's dental industry specialist in infection prevention and control. So the CDIPC is more the clinical aspect, and the DIS IPC would be more, you know, your office management, your non clinical team members, uh, maybe your sales reps. Laura, do you have anything to add to that?
SPEAKER_06No, the you you've got it perfectly right. And the other thing, you're right, Linda, it has been The works for several years in conjunction with OSAP and actually with the CDC. And the um certifications were officially launched just recently. And actually, the first exams were administered in 2021. And 2022 was our first launch of it. So it's in its infancy right now for being widely known. But we look for, we look forward to it growing exponentially in the in the next several years.
SPEAKER_04Fabulous. Thank you, everyone. And full disclosure, I am working on my certification. I was part of the committee that helped to write the course, the online course. And with the pandemic and everything else going on, I just have not set aside the time to do that. But it is a primary goal for me to hopefully do that by the end of this year. As I mentioned offline to the Divas and to Laura and Gwen, I just got my badge for 44 years of certification with Danby. I started out as an office-trained assistant and went to a weekend dental assisting program in Michigan where I lived at the time and was so proud to take and to pass that CDA exam and then went on to become a registered dental assistant in Michigan as well. And even though I don't work clinically any longer, I will never let that credential lapse because it means so much to me. Just as Gwen said, it represents experience and study and a commitment to excellence. And it's just the badge of honor. And so I'm so excited. I'm going to put my badge on my website this week. The one thing, and we touched on it a little bit earlier with Laura about activities around dental assisting and dental boards and regulations. The one wish that I have for this profession is that the CDA credential or some common credential be an entry-level requirement for someone to be able to work as a dental assistant. Of course, that means working with every state dental board, and there's some resistance to that on the part of dentistry, but it certainly may help with longevity. I remember a number of years ago that I believe it was Danby that did a study on longevity that said that those dental assistants that had a CVA credential stayed in the profession significantly longer than those that did not, because they viewed it as a profession and not just as a job. Because the the comparative professions, not really so comparative, but you look at the fact that I can't set up a business and be a nail technician or a hairdresser, or I can't work in a veterinary clinic without um some kind of certification or a license. So why do we allow dental assistants to be taking radiographs, be in charge of infection prevention and control and so forth without some type of credentialing? So, Laura, I'd love for you to weigh in on that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, I'm happy to. And we share your desire to have a national, if you will, standard. And as do many people, we brought together stakeholders from over 20 organizations in July of 2022 to talk about the future of dental assisting and the dental team and oral health care. And the prevailing initiative that came out of there was can we work towards some sort of national standard? We had dental boards in the room, we had the ADA in the room, we had hygienists in the room, there the dental service organizations, all sorts of groups were represented. So actually, that was a really um an important input uh piece to our strategic planning and our uh our future planning for what we need to be doing as an organization for the profession. And as a result, we are looking to launch an updated new, if you will, professional model in the coming years. But it's going to take us a while to get there because of what exactly you said. We need to be working with the state dental boards. We need to be working with all facets of the dental team. You know, it's not easy for the states to say, okay, we're going to have um be able to navigate and manage all of this when you have so many dental assistants in the profession. So that is the beauty of a national professional model, if you will. If we can develop something, and I'm confident we can, because we already have the baseline for the certification that is recognized, as I said, in so many states, or our exams are recognized in so many states, it's quality. So we need to make sure that we are developing something by the profession that includes the all aspects of the dental team and employers and those sitting on state dental boards to create a model that provides flexibility, that provides quality, that provides assurance, that provides portability. But my dream and my, I guess, I don't know if it's Pollyanna or not, that we have something that people can enter into and make their way through the system, if you will, through the certification process and branch out in any way they want to go. If you want to be in orthodontics, if you want to be in a community health center, if you want to be a chair side dental assistant, if you want to be an office manager, that there are paths and options available that a state can look at and say, that's exactly what we need. And so we're going to adopt that as opposed to creating anything on our own. It meets our standards. And hopefully the dental practice acts across the state will adopt this because they've had input into it and they and they'll and they'll see it as a value for their state and their um their needs as well. We recognize there's a workforce shortage. We absolutely, and there has been one, but it's absolutely exasperated right now, especially because so many dental assistants, certified dental assistants that we've surveyed recently, are planning to retire. So we need to build that pipeline back in and we need to get give credit for things that people are already doing towards our certification. We need to increase the number of people, not only certified, but those that are interested in coming into dentistry and oral health care alone. It's the entry point into it. So we have we have many things underway currently with high schools and with high school groups and career tech centers and lots of educational programming. Um, we are looking forward to the future to build that pipeline and really bring something forward for the entire professions, for states uh and their then their dental boards um to adopt. And we're we're excited about it.
SPEAKER_04Me too. And I'm sure I speak for the rest of the divas as well. I know and I'm sure you are aware that the American Dental Assistance Association looked at that all the way back in the early 1990s, that we brought all those same communities together, with the exception of DSOs, because they didn't really exist much at that point. And everybody said it was a great idea, but then nothing really happened, at least not immediately, but we're starting to see some of those things change. So we're excited to celebrate Danby's 75 years of certification of dental assistance. We're excited to be celebrating DICAM with Danby. Thank you, Laura, and thank you, Gwen, for um coming in and sharing your expertise and your knowledge with us today. And we hope that our listeners benefit from all this great information. We will put contacts for the Dental Assisting National Board and the Dale Foundation in the resources, on the show notes, and on our website. And in closing, we thank you for sharing or sharing your time with us listening to this podcast. We hope that you will be a regular listener. We bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. If you have questions, you can submit them by email to support at the compliancedevas.com. And we hope that you join us again for a future episode.