Meeting Public Comments

Jeannene Veenstra [IDAA]

To the Sub Committee for HF340 The Iowa Dental Assistants Association believes education is important. Dental assistants are required by the state to be registered in order to practice. This includes taking state board exams by graduating from a CODA accredited program, being a CDA, registered from another state, or by going through a trainee program. When I was IDAA President, I was one that got the registration of Dental Assistants in place. Initially a DA had a minimum of a year on the job training before they could sit for the registration exam. We believed registration was really important for the safety of the public. A dental assistant in a trainee program, could test and show she understood infection control, and was capable of carrying it out. In the beginning of 2024, dentists reduced on the job training, and whenever the supervising dentist felt they were able to sit for the exam they did. Dental Assisting education is important. A dental assistant has many responsibilities in an office. Infection control, instrumentation, charting, handling hazardous materials, and radiology. If it takes two years for an accredited school to teach this, how would a dentist with a busy practice be able to have time to train an assistant properly?Some offices have another assistant train others. The bad thing with this is that some of the processes are outdated and sometimes unsafe. Dental Assistants are required to have two hours in infection control, while dentists are only required to have one hour. I have even returned after attending a continuing education course in Infection Control, being excited about a technique that we had learned and the dentist says he has never done that process and doesn't think it's necessary, and that it costs too much extra, so it isn't incorporated into the practice. Knowledge of a dental assistant is important for the protection of the public. Covid has caused an increase of a workforce shortage in many areas across the board, not just dentistry. It is dangerous to drop testing and registration of dental assistants. You won't get quality employees that will continue to work or be determined to do things properly, but those that just say they were done at the end of the day. It will also cause highly functioning dental assistants to leave their profession, because they don't feel they are valued for their knowledge at their work place, causing even more of a shortage. Proper training and a career ladder providing advancement opportunities will encourage longer retention in a dental assistant profession. Dismantling the career ladder will lead to higher turnover and greater shortages will slow productivity of Iowa dentists, negatively impacting access to dental care for Iowans. Having untrained dental assistants will decrease wages causing trained dental assistants to leave the profession causing more shortages. One thing I have experienced is that dental assistants are not paid enough for the value of what they do. If trained assistants were paid more it would also help in retainage. Hygienists are paid at least $35 an hour, and in many offices the dental assistant even does her sterilization and is paid around $16$18, in some areas less. A trained dental assistant holds value.Thank you for your time,Jeannene Veenstra CDA, RDAIDAA SE District TrusteeOskaloosa, Iowa