ADA, American Board of Dental Examiners collaborate to advance dental hygiene licensure

Work builds on incorporation of DLOSCE into ADEX Dental Examination

The American Dental Association, Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations and American Board of Dental Examiners have begun discussions focused on advancing dental hygiene licensure assessment to serve the health and safety of the public.

This work builds on the organizations’ agreement from earlier this year to incorporate the ADA and joint commission’s Dental Licensure Objective Structured Clinical Examination, or DLOSCE, into the ADEX Dental Examination. In the same spirit, the ADA and ADEX are exploring opportunities to align dental hygiene licensure examination content, evaluation methods and candidate experience to support state boards in their mission to protect the public, according to a joint statement from the organizations.

“The ADA is committed to supporting licensure approaches that put patient safety first and are rigorous, fair and responsive to the needs of the oral health workforce,” said ADA President Richard Rosato, D.D.S. “Our recent work with ADEX to incorporate the DLOSCE into the ADEX Dental Examination demonstrated what is possible when organizations align around public protection, candidate assessment and licensure mobility. We look forward to continuing that collaboration in support of dental hygiene licensure.”

The ADA and ADEX anticipate continued engagement over the coming months as they explore best practices and potential opportunities to support consistent, modern and defensible dental hygiene licensure examination standards, according to the joint statement.

“ADEX’s responsibility to state dental boards extends across the oral health professions, including both dentistry and dental hygiene,” said ADEX Chair Mark Armstrong, D.D.S. “As we have done with the ADEX Dental Examination and the DLOSCE, our goal is to advance dental hygiene licensure while preserving the clinical standards and public protection priorities that are central to our mission.”