Dental Assisting Professional Model
Addressing the needs of the profession
Dentistry is experiencing challenges related to the workforce, including an insufficient number of qualified dental assistants. The workforce shortage impacts practice capacity, efficiency, productivity, patient access, and quality of care. A shared understanding of what dental assistants do and how they can advance will greatly improve dentistry’s ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel, and to develop pipelines for the future workforce. That’s why representatives from across dentistry created the Dental Assisting Professional Model.
Goals
The goals of the model are to support dental assistants, the dental community, and the public. The model does this by fostering workforce growth, elevating the profession, and supporting career advancement and mobility — all in service of enhancing the ability to recruit and retain qualified dental assistants.
Guiding principles
The workgroup focused on four guiding principles when making decisions about how to approach the model. These guiding principles are patient and provider safety, state uniformity, career advancement for dental assistants, and implementation feasibility.
To support these priorities, the workgroup considered data from several sources, including surveys capturing broad stakeholder perspectives, clinical data from a job task analysis about the tasks dental assistants perform, data about commonalities among states related to dental assisting regulation, and subject matter expertise provided by workgroup members themselves.
Overview of the model
The Dental Assisting Professional Model addresses the variation in state dental assisting requirements by proposing a framework that states can adopt to support more uniformity. The model offers multiple pathways into the profession and a roadmap for professional advancement, supporting the recruitment and retention of dental assistants.
The model proposes three levels for dental assistants, plus infection control, radiography, and nitrous oxide monitoring requirements. Level one is entry level, level two is intermediate, and level three is restorative EFDA.
The model supports dental assistants who graduate from CODA-accredited program, enabling them to earn advanced standing at level 2. The model also provides pathways for dental assistants who complete other types of education or are trained on the job.
Workgroup members
The Dental Assisting Professional Model was developed by a workgroup of 20 members, including dental assistants, dentists, educators, dental hygienists, and regulators. Members were nominated by several dental organizations, including the American Association of Dental Administrators, American Association of Dental Boards, American Dental Assistants Association, American Dental Association, American Dental Education Association, American Dental Hygienists’ Association, Association of Dental Support Organizations, Dental Assisting National Board, Hispanic Dental Association, and National Network for Oral Health Access.
