Episode 30 - The Drill October 2026

SUMMARY: In this episode, Ryan updates members on VDA workforce initiatives, Dental Days at the Capitol coming up in January, the VDA Member 401(k) pooled employer plan, and encourages members to designate R.K. Tongue as broker of record for health insurance. He notes the success of the 2026 Virginia Dental Showcase and announces a 2027 joint meeting with the West Virginia Dental Association July 16–18 at The Greenbrier.

HOST: Ryan Dunn is the CEO of the Virginia Dental Association. Ryan has played major roles in four national and statewide Associations while also working on Capitol Hill. When he’s not talking all things dental, he’s talking about his family and baseball–and sometimes both at the same time.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Update on Dental Assistant Scaling Certificate Program

Dental Days at the Capitol

VDA Member Perks

Bridging Smiles - Joint VDA and West Virginia Dental Association Conference 

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The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional, medical, or legal advice. 

Music in this episode from Epidemic Sound

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Drill. I'm Ryan Dunn, CEO at the Virginia Dental Association. In each episode of The Drill, we follow three parts to our strategic plan at the VDA, updating our members on what's happening to move those initiatives forward. Those are the powerful advocacy, practice success, and professional development. Starting with powerful advocacy, probably one that you've heard us talk about the most. It has been an eventful year with some successful legislative policies that we put forward to specifically try to address the workforce issues and needs of the dental community. So, with that, we have some updates regarding our two pieces of legislation that went through. First, we had our dental assistants with a minimum of 1,800 hours of clinical experience, being able to obtain training and certification to allow them to supergenitively scale that legislation passed, obviously. And now we are in the steps of working on that training and certification part. So the VDA is working pretty tirelessly on trying to put this program together for our members and to also bring it to the greater community as a whole, addressing workforce shortages and also access to care. So be on the lookout for that. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to bring a responsible and a complete training and certification process that will both be easy for dental assistants, but also for the dentists who are responsible for overseeing the process and training that individual. So more to come on that. The second bill we had was a bill that lawmakers passed permitting the Board of Dentistry to grant a dental hygiene license to internationally educated dentists who have passed the Virginia licensure exam and met the other requirements from the board. So that is actually at the Board of Dentistry currently. And the process there is a little less straightforward because it is somewhat out of the VDA's hands. But by way of timing, there will be a Board of Dentistry Regulatory Committee meeting coming up at the end of October. That committee will review, present, and discuss some of the things around that piece of legislation. And then that regulatory committee or subcommittee will recommend actions to the full Board of Dentistry. And that meeting will be at the beginning of December. It is an exempt action, so we are hoping that a four to six month time frame is realistic for this to become something that the internationally trained dentists throughout Virginia could begin to test or reach out to the Board of Dentistry to seek approval to allow them to sit for the licensure exams. But again, that is somewhat out of our hands as it is going through the regulatory process at the Board of Dentistry. We will keep everybody updated on that. And then lastly, when it comes to our powerful advocacy, a big part of what we do is we have one of the best networks of grassroots activity in the Commonwealth. And that really relies on our dentists to know who their legislators are, talk to their legislators. And a big part of that is participating in our dental days at the Capitol. Every January, we get our members motivated to come to Richmond and spend time going over to the General Assembly and make our voices heard. Have the General Assembly see us in the halls there. Really brings some power to the association and lets them know that the VDA is thousands of dentists across the Commonwealth who are speaking as one voice. So wanted to get that on your calendar. That will be January 21st and 22nd at the Omni in Richmond. So please hold those dates. We hope that you'll be able to join us. Registration will be opening soon. It is one of our premier events. We usually have 40 to 50 legislators join us for the evening reception, and then we'll have a few hundred dentists go over on Friday morning to lobby the General Assembly. Very effective and is a lot of fun to be a part of something like that. So we encourage everybody to put it on the calendar, plan to join us. And you know what? Bring someone who's never participated in that and let them see what organized dentistry looks like at work. And our second area of focus inside of the VDA's strategic plan is practice success. A lot of what the VDA does is designed and hopeful and helpful to the advancement of your practice. Whether you're an associate inside of that practice or whether you own the practice, we all have some very specific benefits inside of our VDA member perks program. Membership should have its perks, right? And that is what this is designed to be. They are peer-reviewed members-only benefits that can save your office money and at the same time benefit and support the activities of the Virginia Dental Association to make sure that uh we can advance the initiatives that we are charged with doing. And I want to highlight a couple that you can take advantage of. Have you looked at the VDA's 401k pooled employer plan yet? And if you haven't, I suggest you take a look. It's a retirement plan built specifically for VDA member practices. So instead of managing your own 401k with all the paperwork and the liability and other headaches that come with it, uh, you can join a pooled plan with lower fees, uh less administrative hassle and cost. And if it's something you've been debating offering in your office and you haven't in the past, this is a great opportunity to see if it's something that you can offer as a benefit to your employees. Um, if you have an existing plan, it would be relatively easy to figure out how you might be able to save money through this pooled employer plan that the VDA has to offer. So if that is something of interest to you, please head to VDAMemberPurks.com. That's where you can find out more. You can inquire and someone will reach out to you to walk you through that. We also have one other item. It's that time of year with insurance and your health care plans coming up for renewals. Um, if you're a VDA member and you're currently paying for health insurance for your team, uh there's a simple step that can make a real difference for your practice without disrupting anything that you already have in place. We're asking VDA member Dennis to reach out to RK Tongue and have them designated as your broker of record. I know that sounds like it may be a scary process, but here's the important part. This doesn't change your existing coverage. Your plan stays exactly the same, same carrier, same benefits, same employees covered. All that changes is who's working on your behalf behind the scenes to service that plan. Uh, once RK Tongue is filed as your broker of record, you gain a dedicated advocate who understands the dental practice world specifically. We have worked with RK Tongue. They are an endorsed broker here at the VDA. RK Tongue works with VDA members. They don't have an unrealistic expectation. They know what your office needs and what your office doesn't need. So switching your broker of record is as simple as completing one single form. It's quick, there's no cost. Uh, you can always change it again if you choose, again, with that same process and the same letter. But for most practices, it means better service, better outcomes for the same coverage that you already have. And I can tell you, we use RK Tongue at the VDA. They are great to work with and really can help to work with you to find what is best for your office. If that sounds like something that is useful to you, we would like you to reach out to Karen Wood at VDA Member Perks, and she will help connect you. You can call her at 804-334-2285 or email her at wood at vadental.org, and she's happy to walk you through that process. And our third section of the strategic plan is professional development. And the VDA continues to offer ways for our member dentists to develop inside of their profession and to continue to offer more CE opportunities and uh better networking and other opportunities for professional growth. Uh, we just wrapped up the 2026 Virginia Dental Showcase at the homestead, which was a huge success. Lots of uh great CE opportunity. And uh I think everyone who came had an absolutely amazing time. It's hard to have a bad time at the homestead. But again, we thank those who were able to come. But we also want to make sure that you get it on your calendar for next year. And we are doing things a little different next year, which is exciting. We are going to be partnering with the West Virginia Dental Association to do a joint annual meeting. We are also going to be moving it. It has been in September. And because we are partnering with West Virginia, they have typically done it at a different time of year. So next year, our meeting jointly with the West Virginia Dental Association will be July 16th through the 18th at the Greenbrier. And we are excited to announce that and to uh start drumming up some support a different time of year, which may present some opportunities for some to bring their family and turn this into a really nice getaway or a vacation. So we are trying something different, looking forward to working with our partners in West Virginia to bring y'all an amazing event with a great opportunity for CE speakers and some good time for network and fellowship. So uh we hope that you will put again July 16th through the 18th on your calendar. And that wraps up another episode. We thank you for taking the time to make sure that you know the drill.