ADHA Board of Trustees Adopts Standards for Clinical Dental Hygiene Practice

The Board of Trustees of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA), at its winter meeting, adopted the Standards for Clinical Dental Hygiene Practice. ADHA appointed a task force to develop these standards. This group has been actively working on this document since the fall of 2005, held feedback sessions during forums at two ADHA annual sessions, and distributed the draft document widely to the communities of interest for review and comment.

These Standards, as developed, reflect the dental hygiene process of care and will be instrumental in assisting clinicians in their daily delivery of patient care. Further, these guidelines will be useful in educating the public, other care providers and policy makers on clinical dental hygiene practice.

“The approval of these Standards of Clinical Dental Hygiene Practice represents the culmination of more than two years of work by ADHA,” said ADHA President Jean Connor, RDH. “I’d like to thank the members of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Task Force who worked so hard to make this a reality. This milestone is just the latest example of the way that ADHA is truly advancing the profession of dental hygiene.”

Members of the ADHP Task Force included:

Pamela Zarkowski, BSDH, MPH, JD, Chair
Kathy Eklund, RDH, MHP
Tammy Filipiak, RDH, BS
Deborah M. Lyle, RDH, MS
Nancy Zinser, RDH, MS
Lynn Ramer, LPH – Board of Trustees Liaison

Look for the finalized version of the Standards for Clinical Dental Hygiene Practice document to be posted at www.adha.org in the next few weeks. In addition, the Standards will be distributed to all ADHA members, along with the May/June issue of Access thanks to the generous support of Philips Sonicare, Inc.