2010 Begins with a Sprint!

Happy New Year to all my fellow Dental Hygiene Colleagues!  What a way to end our last year with a first time Blizzard for most of Oklahoma.  January often is when businesses and organizations give a “State of the State” address on their status.  I too, would like to give you an update on how the Oklahoma Dental Hygienists’ “Association is and where we are going, however, that will take too many pages for you to read.  So, I want to tell you what is on the heart of my mind of the most important two things that ODHA is involved with.  Please find other happenings of ODHA and local components on other pages of this website.

First, ODHA is gearing up for the first OkMOM event.  If you are not familiar with it, visit the OkMOM.org homepage and learn about this huge free dental clinic.  ODHA is supporting ODA and their sponsored organizations to make this a successful event.  It is estimated that 1000 people will receive free dental services, such as extractions, fillings and cleanings each day.  It is scheduled for Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 in Tulsa at the Convention Center.  If you did not sign up to volunteer this year, you will have a chance in the future.  Next year it will be in OKC and the year after in McAllister.

During 2009, ODHA repeatedly asked the Board of Dentistry (BOD) the legality of the Community Dental Health Coordinator program (CDHC) at the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry (OUCOD).  The BOD continued to not address our concerns, even after ODHA filed an official complaint and requested a Declaratory Ruling that asked the Board to answer several questions in regards to the legality of the program.   On August 1, 2009, the BOD declared that it was not in their purview to “tell the OUCOD what they could teach and not teach”…and refused to issue a Declaratory Ruling on our questions.