ODHA is looking for a representative to serve on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Rural Health Association (https://orha.wildapricot.org/).

The Oregon Rural Health Association (ORHA) is a nonprofit organization whose primary goal is to improve the health of rural Oregonians. ORHA was founded in 1992 to build a stronger voice in Salem for all rural practitioners. Today ORHA is composed of individuals and organizations dedicated to providing leadership on rural health issues through advocacy, communication and education.

The ORHA was instrumental in passing the original LAP (now EPP) legislation that created a pathway for dental hygienists to provide dental hygiene services to underserved patients without the supervision of a dentist.

ODHA is an organizational member of ORHA, so ODHA is afforded a position on the ORHA Board of Directors.

The ODHA representative on the ORHA Board of Directors is expected to:

• Attend quarterly meetings of the ORHA Board of Directors (January, April, July, October)
• Attend the Annual Oregon Rural Health Conference
• Provide reports to the ODHA Board of Directors

Preferred qualifications for this position include:

• Membership in ODHA
• Hold an expanded practice permit
• Live and work in a rural area of Oregon
• Work as a dental hygienist with underserved patients
• Interest in advocating for improved health of rural Oregonians

The ODHA representative to the ORHA Board of Directors is appointed by the ODHA President with approval of the ODHA Board of Directors. This is a volunteer position with no remuneration and no reimbursement for expenses.

If you are interested in this position, please complete the attached form and email it to Lisa J. Rowley at lisajrowley@pacificu.edu.

Thank you for considering to leadership opportunity!

ODHA Board of Trustees has been seeking guidance from legal counsel to review our bylaws and ensure they are in support of our new governance structure, our organization's mission, and following association best practices.

The Board of Trustees has recommended the following restated bylaws and articles as drafted by legal counsel.  These restated articles and bylaws will be voted on by the membership at the annual meeting on Friday, November 11, 2016, 12:00pm -2:00pm at the Oregon Dental Hygiene Conference.  Click here for more information on the conference and annual meeting.

An open conference call will be scheduled prior to the annual meeting.  At this conference call all interested members may ask the questions and share feedback on the new bylaws. Please check back for the specific date and time of that call. 

Click here to review the Restated Articles

Click here to review the Restated Bylaws

Click here for more information on ODHA's transformation

November 3, 2016 UPDATE:
As a result of the member meeting with Legal Counsel on November 2, 2016, some non-substantial updates have been made to the proposed bylaws.  Those changes are noted in blue in this document (click to view document)

ODHA is seeking passionate and engaged members to join the 2016-2017 ODHA leadership team.  With a new governance structure in place, ODHA has more opportunities than ever before to be involved.  No matter what your experience or location, we need you to help build our future together!  We want to hear your thoughts and work in partnership with you to guide our association and advance our profession.

The Nominating Committee is seeking interested candidates for both state and local leadership positions. If you are interested in leadership please fill out the new online candidate interest form.  Or, if you would like to nominate someone, please use the new online nomination form. 

Elections for state leaders and state representation will be held at the annual membership meeting on Friday, November 11, 2016 at the Oregon Dental Hygiene Conference.  The nomination committee will recommend a slate of candidates for the positions, however any member in good standing is eligible to run for a position. 

Elections for component leadership will be held at each component annual meeting on Saturday, November 12, 2016 at the Oregon Dental Hygiene Conference.  Any member in good standing may run for leadership position within the component they are a member of.

Please click here for full details about the new leadership structure, open positions and submission forms.

Open positions include:

State Leadership:

• Vice President
• Secretary
• Component Director
• Advocacy Director
• Membership Director
• Director At Large

State Representation:

• ADHA Delegate
• ADHA Alternate Delegate
• Finance Committee Member

Other Leadership Opportunities

• Committee Member
• Local Component Leadership

The Dennis Muir Scholarship Committee met Thursday, May 19th and reviewed nine applications from five programs.

It is always a very difficult choice, as there are many deserving students in our programs. The $1,500.00 Dennis Muir Scholarship will go to Hannah Wieber from Oregon Tech Dental Hygiene at ODS College of Dental Sciences. We also have identified the top applicant from the other four participating schools for a $50.00 Award of Excellence. All Awards will be presented to the students during the Oregon Dental Hygiene Conference.

Dennis Muir Scholarship Winner:
Hannah Wieber, Oregon tech Dental Hygiene at ODS College of Dental Sciences                                                                   

Awards of Excellence Winners:    
Jennifer Muir, Oregon Tech/Klamath Falls
Colleen Bailey, Oregon Tech/CCC
Amy Bell, Pacific University
Nareen Hassan, PCC                                                          

We appreciate all the support the schools have given this Scholarship. We congratulate all the students who applied. It is always encouraging to see the quality of students in our dental hygiene programs.

As always, thank you for your support of this process.

Sincerely,
Sue Sanzi-Schaedel, BSDH, MPH
Chair, Dennis Muir Scholarship Committee    

Senate Bill 738 was passed by the Oregon State Legislature in 2011. This bill allows the Oregon Health Authority to approve Dental Pilot Projects once an application has been approved. The goal of the Dental Pilot Projects is to encourage the development of innovative practices in oral health care delivery systems with a focus on providing care to populations that evidence-based studies have shown have the highest disease rates and the least access to dental care.

Dental Pilot Projects are intended to evaluate the quality of care, access, cost, workforce, and efficacy by teaching new skills to existing categories of dental personnel; developing new categories of dental personnel; accelerating the training of existing categories of dental personnel; or teaching new oral health care roles to previously untrained persons.

The Evaluation Committee is an interdisciplinary team composed of representatives of the dental boards, professional organizations, other state regulatory bodies and interested parties that have applied to participate in evaluating a Dental Pilot Project. Each Dental Pilot Project will have a unique Evaluation Committee.

Evaluation Committee Role:
Evaluation Committee Members are tasked with reviewing progress reports and conducting site visits. Evaluation Committee members are non-paid.

Continuity of the individual members is paramount to the success of the committee in completing their assigned tasks. Members are asked to commit to the length of the project which may vary from three to five years. In the event that a Member is unable to complete the time requirements due to unforeseen circumstances, a new Member will be chosen by application.

Eligible travel expenses will be reimbursed according to State of Oregon guidelines.

Evaluation Committee Responsibilities & Rules:

• Participation and Attendance in Evaluation Committee Annual Meeting
• Advisement on the efficacies of training, competencies and the collection of data
• Review and advisement of project protocols related to the ongoing assurance of patient safety
• Participation and attendance in Site Visits. Members are requested to attend at least one Site Visit during each year of the pilot project.
• Advisement on the evaluation of project progress reports as needed
• Advisement on project issues, should they arise
• Evaluation Committee members are not allowed to accept gifts, meals, lodging, etc. provided by the sponsor or on behalf of the sponsor.
• Evaluation Committee members are not allowed to contact any staff member or sponsor outside of the confines of the Site Visits. If Evaluation Committee members have questions or concerns, they should be voiced during the Site Visit or they should contact the Dental Pilot Project Program manager to discuss their concerns.

 

Time Commitment:
Presently there are two separate pilot projects. Members are allowed to participate on both Evaluation Committees however please keep in mind that the minimum requirements apply to both projects, i.e you must attend a site visit for each project.
Oregon Administrative Statutes require site visits are conducted and progress reports reviewd. Specific requirements are established regarding when these are to be conducted.
Evaluation Committee members are asked to consider that a minimum of one site visit per year is required of each member. In addition, a meeting to discuss the project in detail will be held each year.
The minimum amount of time:

• 1 site visit
• 1 all-day meeting annually
• Review of materials as needed via e-mail, mail, etc.

More Information:

Full details and application here

Interested hygienists should email Sarah Kowalski of the Oregon Health Authority at sarah.e.kowalski@state.or.us.

Call to Annual Session

The 2015 Oregon Dental Hygiene Conference, featuring the 64th Annual Session of the Oregon Dental Hygienists' Association (ODHA), will be held Friday-Sunday, November 13-15, 2015 at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel in Portland, Oregon. This is a copy of ODHA's official call to Annual Session, call for delegates and call for officers!

Call for Delegates

The component delegate count for the 2015 House of Delegates has been sent to all component leaders.  This document lists the number of delegates and alternate delegates for each component, based on the ADHA Constituent Alpha Roster dated August 15, 2015.

Delegates and alternate delegates should plan to attend the following events during the 2015 Oregon Dental Hygiene Conference:

• 1st House of Delegates Meeting
• ODHA Reference Committee Hearings
• 2nd House of Delegates Meeting
• Installation of 2015-2016 ODHA Officers

It is recommended that you also plan to attend the following meetings:

• Leadership Development Luncheon and Professional Issues Forum
• Oregon Dental Hygiene Celebration
• Installation Celebration

Please send the names & email addresses of the delegates and alternate delegates for your component to Katie Bell at kathryn.bell@pacificu.edu by Tuesday October 20, 2015.

Call for Officers

ODHA welcomes candidates for offices from all components.  Every component is asked to encourage members to consider leadership at the state level, so our state is well represented in all actions.  

Officer positions that will be elected this year are

• President Elect
• Vice President
• Treasurer
• One Finance Committee position
• Two ADHA Delegates
• Three Alternate ADHA Delegates
• Component Trustees (see section below)

Please consider reading over the position descriptions and actively consider if you might be available to serve in the coming year. You also can put your name forward for any position at the first House of Delegates meeting.

You do not need prior experience, just a desire to serve. ODHA is very supportive and will help those who are interested. We hope that you will seriously consider running for an open position.

If you are interested in an office please return the attached Candidate Information Form to Katie Bell at kathryn.bell@pacificu.edu.

 

Call for Trustees

The ODHA bylaws state "component trustees shall be elected by their respective constituencies. Odd numbered components shall elect trustees in the odd-numbered years; even-numbered components shall elect trustees in the even-numbered years."

This year even numbered components will just need to confirm their trustee information while the odd numbered components listed below will need to elect a trustee to serve as a state officer for a two-year term.

• Lane County
• Portland
• Washington County
• Southeastern Oregon
• Northeastern Oregon

Component trustees are a state level position.  These individuals sit on the ODHA board of trustees.  They are responsible for guiding the state association and communicating information from the state level to their respective components.

All components, please send the name and contact info (address, phone and email) to Katie Bell at kathryn.bell@pacificu.edu.

Shayla Quynh Coffman is the 2015 recipient of the Lois Whitford Memorial Scholarship! Congratulations to Shayla Quynh Coffman for "capturing the spirit of Lois" in her essay. Please join us at the 2015 Oregon Dental Health Conference to congratulate Shayla and our other ODHA leaders.

The Lois Whitford Memorial Scholarship is a scholarship that was formed in 1997 by ODHA's Professional Development Council to honor the memory of Lois Whitford. Lois was a very influential leader within Oregon Dental Hygienists' Association and the American Dental Hygienists' Association.

This scholarship is offered annually in the spring to the graduating dental hygiene students and is based on the submission of an essay selected by a committee of former students of Lois Whitford.

At its April 17, 2015 meeting, the Board approved the following temporary rules regarding adding prescriptive authority for dental hygienists back to the Dental Hygiene rules. These temporary rules are in effect now, and will remain in effect until permanent rules can be implemented. The Board is planning on having a public rulemaking hearing on permanently implementing these rules and a number of other rule changes on August 27, 2015. More information on these future proposed rule changes will be forthcoming.

The Dental Hygiene Committee of the Oregon Board of Dentistry held a meeting on March 6, 2014. One of the agenda items for this meeting was discussion regarding a request from the Oregon Dental Hygienists’ Association to allow expanded practice dental hygienists to use emergency kits that would contain prescription medications such as EpiPens.

The Dental Hygiene Committee of the Oregon Board of Dentistry recommended a rule change that would allow all dental hygienists to prescribe and use a medical emergency kit that contains EpiPens, nitroglycerin, etc. Following this discussion, the Executive Director of the Oregon Board of Dentistry requested that their Assistant Attorney General (legal counsel) provide the Oregon Board of Dentistry with legal advice on the type of authority dental hygienists have to prescribe drugs.

The Assistant Attorney General opined that the Oregon Dental Practice Act (law) does not expressly authorize dental hygienists to prescribe drugs that were otherwise allowed to be prescribed by rule. A dental hygienist can administer and dispense a drug under the supervision of a dentist. However, there is no prescriptive authority granted to dental hygienists in the law other than in ORS 680.250(3) and (5). These provisions in the Oregon Dental Practice Act do allow expanded practice dental hygienists to write prescriptions for fluoride that is applied or supplied to patients and to prescribe prophylactic antibiotics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as specified in their agreement with a licensed dentist.

Based on this legal opinion, the Oregon Board of Dentistry through their rule making process amended OAR 818-035-0025(5) Prohibitions and OAR 818-035-0030(f) Additional Functions of Dental Hygienists by deleting the word “prescribe” from each of these rules. This rule change means that dental hygienists cannot prescribe fluoride, fluoride varnish, antimicrobial solutions used for mouth rinsing or other non-systemic antimicrobial agents. This rule change became effective on August 1, 2014.

Expanded practice dental hygienists can continue to write prescriptions for fluoride that is applied or supplied to patients and to prescribe prophylactic antibiotics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as specified in their agreement with a licensed dentist because this prescription writing authority is in the law.

After this legal opinion was rendered, the Oregon Dental Hygienists’ Association (ODHA) immediately began working with the Oregon Board of Dentistry (OBD) and the Oregon Dental Association (ODA) to draft a bill that would add prescriptive authority for dental hygienists to the Oregon Dental Practice Act thereby making this part of the law.

The bill that has been drafted would add “prescribing, dispensing and administering drugs for such services” to the definition of dental hygiene in the Oregon Dental Practice Act. This bill will be considered by the 2015 Oregon State Legislature. With the support of OBD, ODA and ODHA, we anticipate that this bill will become law in 2015 and dental hygienists in Oregon will again be able to prescribe fluoride, fluoride varnish, antimicrobial solutions used for mouth rinsing or other non-systemic antimicrobial agents.

It is our great pleasure to announce that Gail Aamodt, RDH, MS, has been selected to receive the 2014 ADHA Educator of the Year Award.  This award is sponsored by the American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) and Crest Oral-B.
 
Gail is an Associate Professor and the Clinical Education Coordinator for the School of Dental Health Science at Pacific University.
 
The ADHA Educator of the Year award recognizes, honors and rewards a full-time dental hygiene faculty member who contributes to and is dedicated to providing high quality education to dental hygiene students.  The recipient will characterize excellence in teaching, mentoring and/or devotion to student achievement.
 
As the recipient of the 2014 ADHA Educator of the Year Award, Gail will receive:
 
•an engraved award
•recognition in an ADHA publication
•complimentary registration for the 2014 ADHA Annual Session •air travel & two nights lodging at the 2014 ADHA Annual Session
•$1,000 cash award
 
Gail will be presented with the 2014 ADHA Educator of the Year Award at the awards ceremony held during the 2014 ADHA Annual Session in Las Vegas, Nevada this June.
 
Please join us in congratulating Gail Aamodt on being selected for this prestigious national award!

SAVE THE DATE!

November 8-10, 2013

ODHA Annual Business Meeting and Fall Oral Health Conference

Join us for CE for dental hygienists, parties (aka networking!), discussion of issues facing our profession, updates on what your association has been doing, and much much more!  Meeting is open to all dental hygienists!

Contact your local component if you are interested in attending as a delegate and making the most of your membership!

Delegate information Click here (delegates manual is posted 30 days prior to the meeting!)

If you have trouble loggin on, please contact Hildie 

Thank you to our Banner Sponsor, Captiol Dental Care, Inc.

Oregon Practice Act Changes July 1, 2013

(see below)

Thank you ODHA Government Relations Council for your efforts and thank you members for your support!

Click here to get more info on upcoming Dental Hygiene Committee Meetings!

The following changes are of particular interest to dental hygienists.  These changes are a result of collaboration between Oregon Dental Hygienists Association, Oregon Dental Association and the Oregon Board of Dentistry.

Changes like these can only happen when dental hygienists speak with one voice. Please join us today!

OAR  818-035-0020  has been amended, in part, by removing the following language:  “A supervising dentist may not authorize a dental hygienist and a dental hygienist may not perform periodontal procedures unless the supervising dentist has examined the patient and diagnosed the condition to be treated.”  This change means that a dental hygienist can perform scaling & root planing without first having the patient examined by a dentist.

OAR  818-035-0066  has been amended by adding additional populations that can be treated by a dental hygienist with an expanded practice permit to include “specific population groups designated by the Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (DHPSA) that lack access to care and are underserved.”

OAR  818-035-0072  has been amended by deleting the word “anterior” from rule.  This change will allow a dental hygienist who holds a Restorative Functions Endorsement (RFE) to place both anterior and posterior composite restorations.

OAR  818-042-0090  has been amended by adding “or dental hygienist” after the word “dentist” in three areas.  This change will allow dental hygienists (along with dentists) to authorize EFDAs to apply pit and fissure sealants and to apply temporary soft relines to complete dentures for the purpose of tissue conditioning, to provide indirect supervision when these procedures are performed, and to check these procedures when they are completed prior to dismissing the patient.

OAR  818-042-0095  has been amended by deleting the word “anterior” from the rule.  This change will allow a dental assistant who holds a Restorative Functions Certificate (RFC) to place both anterior and posterior composite restorations.

Please share this information with your professional colleagues.

Please note that these changes are scheduled to go into effect until July 1st.

ODHA members dues support activities that support ALL dental hygienists.

We are BETTER TOGETHER!

Support what supports you!

Click here for more information!

Click here to see all updates for Government Affairs/Legislation.

President's Message

Click here to learn more!

Click here for more info 

Click here!

Available in our members section!

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Membership in your professional association  -  $25 a month   

Supporting your profession - Priceless           Join us today

Please take some time to give back to your profession!

Check your  local component  for opportunities. There are also  Other opportunities  available

Click here  ADHA Career Center  

Member Accomplishments! See what else our members do!

Hygiene News Headlines   Click here! 

The beauty of your membership is that - because of your "investment" - you won't have to worry.  You will know that ODHA will:

• protect and appropriately expand your scope of practice. 
• sustain career within the ever-changing health system. 
• ensure that you can be viewed as a professional. 
• provide opportunities to network with your colleagues. 
• speak on your behalf to the Oregon Legislature.
• speak on your behalf nationwide and worldwide through ADHA.

To become a member click here!

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