Dentistry: dental assistants.

Existing law, the Dental Practice Act, establishes the Dental Board of California to license and regulate the practice of dentistry, including the licensure and regulation of dental auxiliaries, including, among others, dental assistants, as defined, and sets forth duties and functions that those dental auxiliaries are authorized to perform. Existing law requires the board to review and evaluate all applications for licensure in all dental assisting categories to ascertain whether a candidate meets the appropriate licensing requirements specified by statute and board regulation. Existing law establishes the Dental Assisting Council within the Dental Board of California and requires the council to consider all matters relating to dental assistants in the state, as specified, and to make appropriate recommendations to the board and the standing committees of the board in specified areas, including standards and criteria for approval of dental assisting educational programs, courses, and continuing education. Existing law requires the board to approve, modify, or reject recommendations by the council within 120 days of submission to the board during full board business. Existing law requires that fees relating to the licensing and permitting of dental assistants be established by regulation, subject to certain limitations prescribed by statute. Existing regulations set the fee for an application for board approval of various courses for dental auxiliaries, including infection control courses and radiation safety courses, at $300. This bill would require that the fee for review of each approval application or reevaluation for a course for instruction in interim therapeutic restoration and radiographic decisionmaking, radiation safety, or infection control that is not accredited by a board-approved agency or the Chancellor's office of the California Community Colleges not exceed $300, and would make conforming changes. Existing law makes the employer of a dental assistant responsible for ensuring that the dental assistant has successfully completed a board-approved 8-hour course in infection control before performing any basic supportive dental procedures involving potential exposure to blood, saliva, or other potentially infectious material. Existing regulations require an employer of employees who, through performance of their duties, could reasonably anticipate skin, eye, mucous membrane, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials to ensure that those employees participate in a bloodborne pathogen training program that provides, among other things, explanations related to bloodborne diseases and pathogens. This bill would, instead, make the employer responsible for ensuring that the dental assistant has successfully completed the course in infection control on or before 60 days from the date of first employment at the dental office. The bill would also authorize a dental assistant to comply with this requirement by taking a board-approved course provided by a board-approved registered dental assisting education program, a stand-alone course approved by the board, as specified, or a course with 6 hours of didactic instruction and at least 2 hours of laboratory instruction using video or a series of video training tools, as specified. The bill would also require the employer to provide the above-described bloodborne pathogen training program prior to the dental assistant's potential exposure to blood, saliva, or other potentially infectious materials and annually thereafter. Existing law authorizes a registered dental assistant in extended functions licensed on or after January 1, 2010, to perform specified procedures under direct supervision and pursuant to the order, control, and full professional responsibility of a licensed dentist, including gingival retraction for impression and restorative procedures. This bill would add polishing and contouring existing amalgam restorations to that list of authorized duties and make conforming changes. Existing law requires a person seeking licensure as a registered dental assistant in extended functions to meet certain eligibility requirements, including completion of an extended functions postsecondary program approved by the board, as specified. If the applicant completes a program that teaches the duties that registered dental assistants in extended functions were allowed to perform pursuant to board regulations before January 1, 2010, existing law also requires the applicant to complete a course approved by the board in a list of specified procedures. This bill would revise the list of procedures required to be covered by that course. Specifically, the bill would remove taking final impressions for permanent indirect restorations, would add performing post, core, and build-up procedures in conjunction with direct and indirect restorations, and would add polishing and contouring existing amalgam restorations. Existing law requires an unregistered dental assistant not enrolled in a board-approved program for registered dental assisting or an alternative dental assisting program, as specified, to complete a certification course in infection control, as specified. This bill would delete that requirement. Existing law establishes various requirements for courses in radiation safety and infection control for certain dental auxiliaries, including that the course establish specific instructional objectives, utilize objective evaluation criteria for measuring student progress, and meet certain requirements related to duration of instruction. Existing regulations require a dental assisting program or course to meet certain criteria to secure and maintain board approval, including that the program or course director actively participate in, and be responsible for, the administration of the program or course, as specified. Existing regulations authorize the board to approve, provisionally approve, or deny approval of a program or course, as specified. Existing regulations impose specific requirements on a radiation safety course for board approval, including that the course provide no fewer than 32 clock hours of instruction, including at least 8 hours of didactic instruction, at least 12 hours of laboratory instruction, and at least 12 hours of clinical instruction. Existing regulations also impose specific requirements on a course in infection control for board approval, including that each student pass a written examination that reflects the curriculum content, which may be administered at intervals throughout the course as determined by the director. This bill would codify those regulations with certain modifications, including, among other things, requiring that provisional approval for a course in radiation safety or infection control expire after one year or upon subsequent board approval or denial, whichever occurs first, and that the board provide, in writing, the specific reasons for provisionally approving or denying a course to the course director within 90 days of that decision. The bill would authorize the board to, in lieu of conducting its own investigation for a course in radiation safety, accept the findings of a commission or accreditation agency approved by the board, or its designee, and adopt those findings as its own. This bill would require a radiation safety course to provide students with certain experiences. Specifically, the bill would require the laboratory instruction to include supervised experience performing procedures using study models, manikins, or other simulation models, and would require the clinical instruction to include supervised experience performing procedures in a clinical setting on patients. The bill would require laboratory instruction to be completed before a student participates in clinical instruction, and would establish minimum requirements for laboratory instruction, including providing demonstrations in applying hand cleansing products and performing hand cleansing techniques, protocols, and procedures, among other things. This bill would authorize didactic instruction to be provided through distance learning modalities and would require providers using those modalities to meet specified requirements, including providing technological assistance to students, as needed, to participate in instruction, and requiring didactic instruction to be completed before a student participates in laboratory instruction. The bill would require the course provider to, among other things, notify prospective students of the computer or communications technology necessary to participate in didactic and laboratory instruction. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.