Can you name the twelve ADA recognized specialties in dentistry?
By Joan Otomo-Corgel, DDS, MPH and Karen Hart, Senior Director, Education Operations and Director of CDEL
What is the process for specialty recognition?
Let’s start with the process. Three separate but related agencies of the ADA play important roles in ensuring quality education and recognition of dental specialties for the public and the profession: Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards (NCRDSCB) and Council on Dental Education and Licensure (CDEL).
The processes for accrediting advanced education programs in the dental specialties and recognizing dental specialties by the ADA and its Council on Dental Education have evolved since their inception more than 40 years ago. Today CODA is a semi-autonomous agency of the ADA, with sole authority to administer the dental accreditation program, develop quality standards, and determine accreditation status for dental education program. CODA receives its accreditation authority from the acceptance of the dental communities (private practitioners, educators and licensing bodies), and the United States Department of Education. The scope of CODA’s responsibilities does not include the recognition of dental specialties.
Specialty recognition is the purview of the NCRDSCB (National Commission) formed in 2018. The National Commission is also a semi-autonomous agency of the ADA, with sole authority to administer the specialty recognition program, determining whether an applicant meets the ADA’s Requirements for Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards of Dental Specialties (Requirements).
The National Commission applies these quality standards to recognize disciplines of dentistry as dental specialties and their associated specialty certifying boards. The National Commission also conducts reviews of the recognized dental specialties and certifying boards to ensure ongoing compliance with the Requirements of the benefit of the dental profession, state dental boards and the public.
These commission programs involve a public trust that requires the programs be administered and decisions made in a consistent manner that is free from bias and conflict of interest. Through the promulgation of quality standards and requirements, the commissions endeavor to protect the public, students, and the profession through integrity, confidentiality measure, and due process. This assures the long-term viability of dentistry as a self-regulating profession. The commissions are obligated to receive input from all communities of interest, including the public. They must weigh all input equally and make decisions that are in the best interest of the commissions themselves, as well as the public.
Both CODA and the National Commission have a long history of operation, first as committees of the precursor to the ADA CDEL or CDEL itself. As public and government entities’ expectations on controlling conflict evolved over time, the work of these committees was transferred to the commission structure of today. Currently, the ADA relies on the CDEL to serve as a “community of interest” to the commissions. CDEL monitors CODA activities, commenting on proposed accreditation standards and policies on behalf of the ADA and reporting on accreditation matters to the association.
Regarding specialty recognition, CDEL has responsibility for maintaining, reviewing and proposing revisions to the ADA’s Requirements to the ADA House of Delegates. The Requirements are essential to the conduct of the National Commission’s recognition program.
Editor’s Note: AO members serving on the ADA/CDEL Committee on Recognition of Dental Specialties include Dr. Joan Otomo-Corgel as the committee chair and Dr. Mehrdad Favagehi representing specialists in private practice. Other AO members serve in CODA and NCRDSCB.