Strongly opposed to a mandatory test every 3 years.

I believe that we, as dental professionals, hold ourselves to a higher standard than the average individual. Continuous education is the hallmark of our profession. There are a small percentage of individuals in our profession who do not adhere to this principle; however, trying to catch the 10% of the violators while punishing 90% of all licensees, is not right.  While there are constant changes in the regulations governing Dentistry, ignorance of the laws by a few is not a reason to punish those who do keep up to date. Improving compliance with the rules lies in the communications from the Board of Dentistry; therefore, I challenge the Board of Dentistry to improve its communication with your licensees. Currently, the Board of Dentistry acquires the e-mail address of each licensee at renewal.   Why is there no hotline to help licensees better understand questions regarding the statutes and regulations?  This type of dialogue should be improved when the Board of Dentistry knows that there is a problem.  Previously the Board of Dentistry published a printed quarterly newsletter with up-to-date guidelines, policy decisions and infractions that have occurred to licensees and mailed it to all Dentist and Hygienist. This type of communication was extremely helpful in understanding the type of infractions, rationale and the sanctions that were being imposed by the Board of Dentistry. I know your website contains the newsletter, statutes and regulations of Virginia. However, as a licensee who pays a fee to a governing Board, we should receive correspondence from that Board! The quarterly newsletters were discontinued several years ago due to budgetary concerns.I encourage the Board of Dentistry to bring back this type of interaction by electronic means to all Dentists and Hygienists in Virginia. I personally believe this can be accomplished by sending e-mail notices regarding, Board actions, infractions that occurred, NORA requests and any other pertinent communication to all of its licensees. This type of communication will help each licensee to better understand the statutes, rules and regulations governing Virginia’s dentists and hygienists. Furthermore, the Board of Dentistry will receive more communications from the licensees than it currently does. The Board has yet to answer several questions that were made in open forums. Who can own a dental practice? Can your hygienist charge out an examination when the Dentist is not present? It’s not the fault of the licensee that you have not decided on the answers to the above questions. The few times I have contacted the BOD for an interpretation of a statute I have been told by the BOD's Executive Director the she and the Board could not and would not comment or interpret. I feel communication and education  from the BOD is what is needed, not every three years testing of Virginia's Dentists.

 What we need is better communications from the Board of Dentistry. Your vote was unanimous without any discussion by a single Board member. Since there was no discussion at this meeting, maybe you can show me the data that backs up your claim that a test will improve compliance by your licensees? Who will pay the cost of developing this test every three years? Who will pay for administering this test? Is there any concern by our Board of Dentistry about increasing the cost to your licensees? Therefore, I strongly oppose a mandatory test for all Licensees every 3 years.