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2014 Fall Newsletter
• PRESIDENTS LETTER •
• ASDHA’S FALL CE/MEETING • ELECTIONS •
• COMPONENT NEWS: MIDNIGHT SUN,
• COOK INLET •
• ANNUAL SESSION •
• LEGISLATIVE • MEMBERSHIP •
• COMMUNITY •
Presidents Letter
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
ASDHA has been working hard and here’s
• UAA NEWS • BODE REPORT • IOH •
what we’re up to. Updates to our website
and mailing list thanks to Stephen
“Spence” Spencer. I’ve been busy writing letters on behalf the ASDHA board . We supported
proposed regulation changes to the Division of Health Care services 7 AAC 110, regarding
EPSDT (Early & Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment). We provided comment to the
Division of Professional Licensing about the negative impact that the proposed increase in
courtesy license fees might have on events like Misson of Mercy. We supported the
reappointment of Dr. Tom Koveleski, DDS and nomination of Paula Ross, RDH, BA to the
Alaska Board of Dental Examiners. We’re looking to get our association in order by asking
you to vote on dissolving inactive components and the CE committee is already planning the
Spring CE event to be held on April 18th, 2015. Our District Trustee Lancette will be joining us
and providing leadership training and mentoring along with an extra half day of, advocacy and
strategic planning, so I hope you’ll consider joining us! Another winter is rolling in and it’s
time for me to pass the torch! Sandy Clark Buettner will be taking the lead as ASDHA
President! She was also chosen to attend ADHA’s Unleashing Your Potential, leadership
workshop in Chicago later this month. Congratulations Sandy! I thank her along with the rest
of the ASDHA board and committees for continuing to devot much of their time and efforts
to the benefit of all of us! None of our efforts would be possible without the support of our
faithful members. Thank you for seeing the value of your professional association. Lets
continue to move forward with momentum, for the future of dental hygiene, by becoming
involved, sharing our ideas and continuing to be passionate about dental hygiene and
community health.We need YOU to bring these fresh ideas to our association and I hope
you’ll consider taking part in any way that you can.
With Gratitude, Valerie Truncali, RDH, BSDH
Spring Continuing Education
Alaska State Dental Hygienists’ Association
Fall CE/Business Meeting/Silent Auction
Friday November 7th & , Saturday November 8th, 2014
Friday: UAA ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES BUILDING ROOM 206
Saturday: UAA RASMUSSEN HALL ROOM 117
UAF MURIE 230, 982 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks AK 99709
CE Presenter: Shirley Gutkowski, RDH, BSDH
FRIDAY
1:15pm: Registration
2:00-5:00pm: Stand out: Paper Persona
SATURDAY
8:15am: Registration
9:00am - 12:00pm: Perky Perio
12:00pm-12:40pm: Lunch
12:45-1:45: Business Meeting
2:00pm- 5:00pm: Missing Pieces
There will be a chance to win a Crown Seating Saddle
chair !!!
ASDHA would like to thank the following sponsors for
making this event possible:
Be sure to check www.alaskasdha.org for additional CE information and forms.
As always, think about ways you can volunteer, represent, support and promote the
interests of dental hygienists by being an active part of your professional
organization.
Positions up for Election
Delegate 2014-2016
The Delegate shall: become familiar with the reference materials including the file
materials from previous delegate(s), transactions of previous years, ADHA Bylaws,
ADHA Policy Manual, ADHA Scopes Manual and Roberts’ Rule of Order (current
edition); thoroughly study the current ADHA Delegate’s Manual prior to the Annual
Session, consult with the ASDHA President on pertinent issues; review Annual Meeting
material with ASDHA Executive Board, and/or membership; attend the opening session,
all House of Delegates Meetings, all District XII Caucus meetings, all Reference
Committee Hearings, and such other meetings and functions essential to the proper
representation of ASDHA, during ADHA Annual Session; maintain communications
with ASDHA members and officers, District XII Trustee, ADHA central office, and other
delegates, as necessary, report to the President, within reasonable period of time
following return from the Annual Session, a review of the proceedings and actions of the
House of Delegates; submit a full written report of activities of the House of Delegates at
the next ASDHA Annual Meeting, maintain a file of material, including copies of all
correspondence, for current use and for the use of succeeding delegates, and to serve as
chairperson of the delegation if so appointed by the President.
Vice President 2014-2016
The Vice-President/President-Elect shall: assist the President as requested; fill the
unexpired term of President should the office become vacant; will serve as first alternate
delegate for the ADHA Annual Session, and perform other duties as may be appropriate
to the office of Vice-President/President-Elect, or as directed by the Executive Board, or
these Bylaws.
Dissolving Inactive Components
Dear ASDHA member,
As you may know, the American Dental Hygienists’ Association divides its members up
into Constituents (i.e. each state organization) and Components (the local organizations).
The ADHA is in the midst of drafting new guidelines for requirements for active
components. Currently, Alaska is divided into seven local components, based on zip
code. Until recently, only 3 of these components were active: Midnight Sun (Fairbanks
area), Kenai Peninsula, and Cook Inlet (Anchorage and the Mat-Su). Currently both
Kenai and Cook Inlet are in need of volunteers to fill leadership positions if they are to
remain active components.
After discussion during the ASDHA board meeting on October 15, 2014, the executive
board recommends that the general membership vote at November’s meeting to dissolve
any inactive components, and consolidate zip codes into remaining active components. If
a member is in an inactive component that gets dissolved, they may have their
membership transferred to the nearest active component. Right now, the only active
component is Midnight Sun. Ideally we would have at least two components, breaking up
the state roughly into northern and southern sections: Midnight Sun and Cook Inlet. A
component that gets dissolved now could be reactivated in the future if we see a need.
If you are in an inactive component, please consider stepping up to volunteer. To be
considered “active,” a component must have at least three officers: a president, vicepresident, and secretary/treasurer. They should meet several times a year (either in person
or via electronic media) and should organize/coordinate events that benefit local
members: administering UAA/UAF student scholarships, organizing continuing ed
classes, socials, community volunteer activities, etc.
Sincerely,
The ASDHA Executive Board
Component News
Membership:
MSDHA currently has 30 members!
Board members:
Chloe Allen: President
Melissa Davis & Katie Bellant: Past Presidents
Vice President: Waiting for an amazing Team member to join us !
Jessica Glick: Secretary
Stephanie Czech: Treasurer
We would like to thank Mary Cenery and Nikkole Sayman for their
many years of commitment and service to MSDHA and ASDHA.
2014 MSDHA Fall CE
Dr. Todd Wentz and Dr. Melissa Webster sponsored our fall CE
with speaker Patti DeGangi . This is an ongoing partnership with our
local dentists to bring continuing education to our community. This
year we invited all dental office staff to join us and were able to
stream to Kenai. UAF CTC dental hygiene students & dental
assisting students joined us as well. It was a wonderful event!
Next year, Dr. Melissa Webster of Fairbanks Periodontal
Associates, has already committed to sponsor our fall 2015 CE!
October 17, 2015 Lisa Copeland will speak on:
Dental Implants: Successful Assessment and Maintenance for Lifelong Oral Health &
The Friction Factor: Overcoming Generational Challenges in Clinical Practice.
The Alyeska Best Beginnings Health Fair was a great success again this year. This was our 4th
year volunteering our time and resources to bring oral health instruction and parent education to
children ages 0-8. We were able to work with two local dentists to include dental screenings as
well. MSDHA is always looking for volunteers for these events.
Please contact us at [email protected] if interested.
We plan to continue to offer RDH After 5 over the winter it keeps us
busy!
We will announce our next meeting soon!
MSDHA & UAF CTC Dental Hygiene Mentoring Program:
The class of 2015 is getting ready to graduate in May. The 2013
Students continue to mentor them as they get ready for boards in
Anchorage in May.
Thank you ASDHA CE Committee for making this CE available in
Fairbanks!
Cook Inlet Dental Hygienists’
Association
Board members:
Nicki Bennett, President
Shannon Almeda, Vice President
Lisa Wells, website maintenance
Cook Inlet Dental Hygiene Association has been busy this past year. It has been a long
and difficult road wearing dueling hats. We encourage others to take an interest by being
active part of our professional association. We are looking for new blood, youth and
enthusiasm to help protect and advance our profession.
September 28, 2013 Anne Guignon, RDH, MPH The sick generation – Sipping,
munching, crunching couch-potato kids
September 19, 2014 Collaborated with ADA to provide a continuing education course
with Paula Bradison & the Bradison Management Group presenting on HIPPA
Compliance Officers: Roles and Responsibilities and our own Royann Royer
presented a Local Anesthesia Review.
CIDHA held a mentoring session with students, which provided students an
opportunity to get to know hygienists outside of school exchange information if they
chose and ask questions. The evening ended with Royann providing a 1-hour CE
course on Nitrous.
CIDHA and ASDHA awarded a $1000 scholarship to UAA student Trevor
VanBlankenstein. Congratulations!
Annual Session
The 2014 Annual Session and
ADHA House of Delegates
was in Las Vegas this year.
Our 2 state delegates went
Minna Allen and Lotes
Barkley along with alternative
delegate Sandy Pelto. Lotes was one of our districts’
three committee leaders meaning she set up and ran
meeting long distance before annual session and while
there in Vegas and reported to our district what
happened in those committee meetings. In the House of
Delegates two bylaws were passed along with 17
Lotes, Sandy, Lancette, Minna
proposed resolutions. Also while at annual session
Delegates attended training on membership and
legislation. Next year’s Annual Session will be in Nashville Tennessee.
Legislative News
Not much to report at this time, but we are gearing up for the future. We will be meeting
in with the ADS in December regarding the upcoming legislative session.
Membership
Alaska membership continues to increase over the years
Still less than half of Alaska licensed hygienists :(
We appreciate the support - Please remember that the Association works
for you in many aspects: Most importantly in todays health care system:
Following national and state trends and helping to shape the current role of the
dental hygienist and more importantly, the next generation of dental hygiene
professional.
They are doing this through legislative and organizational support for state
Associations
Even if you cannot give your time with a busy life agenda remember your dues work to
support our profession.
We would love to hear from you and any suggestions or feedback you can provide
ASDHA.
Royann Royer RDH, MPH
Membership Chair
Alaska DHA-Active Membership Trends
200
190
180
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
170
172
174
153
138
127
2007
2008
127
2009
133
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Community
SAVE THE DATES!!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR "MINI“ MOM
UAA Dental Programs will hold it’s 4th free dental days event for residents in need,
without access to dental treatment, March 26th - 28th 2015.
Thursday evening for children only, Friday and Saturday for adults.
If you are available to volunteer your time and skills for a 1/2 day or full day
we would really appreciate your support.
Please contact Royann at [email protected] or Cindy
at [email protected] for more information or to sign up.
Thanks so much!!
The next Alaska Misson of Mercy will be held August 7th &
8th in Fairbanks, Alaska at the Carlson Center!!
For more info, please visit
http://akmom.org/
Greetings from the UAA Dental Hygiene Program!
We have had an unusual fall semester so far. This past summer Associate Professor Elizabeth
Barnett retired. We are thankful for all the experience and knowledge she shared with our
students over the past nine years and wish her well in retirement. We hired adjunct faculty to
teach classes this fall in hopes of posting/filling the open position by the Spring semester. It
now seems that we may not make that deadline and it could be Fall 2015 before we are fully
staffed. In the meantime, we appreciate all the help we have received from the RDH community
in filling our instructor positions. We have also hired Candee Cole to help (part time) with
clinical front desk duties. If you come by the clinic, be sure to introduce yourself to her.
On September 24-26 we had a Site Visit from the Commission of Dental Accreditation as part of
the 7-year accreditation cycle. Our preliminary report indicates we fully meet accreditation
standards! Thanks go to our Advisory Committee members, students, staff, and faculty for
helping prepare for and conduct the Site Visit. It has been a bit stressful here as we wrote our
self-study over the summer and had Site Visitors on campus. We are very happy to have that
behind us for another seven years!
Anna Pattison came up for an all-day continuing education course for local hygienists. She also
conducted an instrumentation workshop for faculty. She is interested in returning to repeat
that lecture for those that were unable to attend, and offer a hands-on advanced
instrumentation workshop for those that have taken the lecture CE course. We hope to partner
with the ASDHA if possible to bring Ms. Pattison back up for that in conjunction with more
faculty training. Stay tuned!
Our senior students are in the heart of their dental hygiene education this semester, learning
local anesthesia this semester, as well as oral pathology, periodontology, advanced
instrumentation, and (of course) clinic. They are just finishing their rotations at South Central
Foundation for this semester. The junior students are adjusting to life in the dental hygiene
program and are using Anna Pattison’s instrumentation videos to supplement their skill
practice. This is something new we are trying out to enhance their instrumentation education.
The student club is participating in UAA’s annual Haunted Halloween Fun Night on Saturday,
October 25. If you read this before then, consider taking your little ones to this fun event and
make sure to look for the Dental Hygienists of the Future! Their booth is the one with Angry
Birds. It was the most popular booth last year!
Thanks for your continued support of our students and program. It is wonderful for our
students!
Sandy Pence RDH, MS
UAA Dental Hygiene Program
Western Regional Board Exam Update
 Dental Hygiene onsite exam retakes will be offered to qualified candidates.
Candidates must meet 2015 eligibility requirements. DH exam retakes will occur at the
end of the normal exam schedule. For normal attempts and retake attempts, candidates
are unofficially notified onsite as to whether they have passed the exam so they can plan
for a retake as needed.
Beginning in 2015, the Process of Care exam will no longer be required for dental
hygiene candidates.
 In 2015 the WREB dental hygiene exam fee will be lowered by $225. This does not
include the school portion of the fee.
Alaska Board of Dental Examiners (BoDE)
Report
October 2014
BY GAIL WALDEN, RDH AND CHERYL FELLENBERG, RDH
The Alaska BoDE has been very busy. Our last meeting was held September 5 th in
Anchorage. The following bullet points highlight some key information for you to be
aware of.
 License Renewal Approaching—Renewal applications for the January 1, 2015
through December 31, 2016 licensing period will be available approximately 30
days before the December 31, 2014 expiration date of your license. Please contact
the Division at (907) 465-2542 or (907) 465-2550 if you have any questions. The
BoDE supports on-line license renewal and we hope this will be an option for
licensing in 2016.

New Licensing Examiner--Stacia Erkenbrack started as the new examiner for the
BoDE in August. She has been working hard to absorb a lot of information and is
still learning and catching up—her position is demanding, so expect delays and
try to be patient. Her contact information is available on the board website and
listed here.
 Telephone: (907) 465-2542
 E-mail: [email protected]

Continuing Education—A summary of continuing education requirements,
effective December 15, 2013 are listed below and will apply for the 2013-2014
license renewal period. You can reference 12 AAC 28.400-12 AAC 28.420 for
all regulations regarding “continuing professional competence requirements.”
 Dentists—completion of at least 32 contact hours.
 Dental hygienists—completion of at least 20 contact hours.
 CE courses must be verifiable and the subject matter must contribute to
the professional knowledge and development of the practitioner or
enhance their ability to provide services to the patient.
 Courses in practice/risk management are limited to three hours per
licensing period.
 No more than two credit hours may apply for at least two hours of
volunteer service in a dental related setting.
 CPR may be used for required contact hours—no more than 4 hours will
apply for the entire renewal period.
 If you have CE questions, please contact the Licensing Examiner at (907)
465-2542 or e-mail: [email protected].

Fee increases—Written comments for proposed fee changes were due October
31st. Fee adjustments are needed and were anticipated due to increased costs
associated with having a dedicated board investigator as well as increased
regulatory activity. Fees were increased at a higher percentage for dentists due to
the fact that a majority of BoDE investigative expenses involve them. Comments
received will be reviewed and taken into consideration before adopting final
regulations. Any fee adjustments will be implemented for this winter’s license
renewal. A few of the proposed increases that affect dental hygienists are listed
here.
o
o
o
Biennial Dental Hygiene License $150 (currently $120)
Local Anesthetic Permit $60 (currently $50)
Restorative Function Endorsement $60 (currently $50)

Sedation/Anesthesia Regulations—The BoDE has been working on updating
anesthesia/sedation regulations for dentistry. We are writing new language for
general anesthesia, deep sedation, moderate sedation, and minimal sedation
(including nitrous oxide for dental hygienists). Currently, under the direct or
indirect supervision of a dentist, a dental hygienist licensed in Alaska can
administer nitrous oxide upon completion of a course of instruction that meets
specific requirements outlined in 12 AAC 28.720 (b) and (c). The BoDE is
proposing the following changes:
 Move existing nitrous oxide regulations to a separate Article so that it can
be easily located by licensees.
 Require an application and approval by the board, mirroring what is
currently required with local anesthesia for dental hygienists.
 Require renewal biennially with dental hygiene license; therefore, a fee
would apply and you would receive something from the Department
verifying your certification is current.

Regulation Notices—If you would like to receive notice of proposed regulations,
you must contact the Regulations Specialist, Jun Maiquis at (907) 465-2537 or by
email: [email protected] and request that your name be added to the
“dental interested parties list.” Notices are sent in the mail to those on the list, but
they are also available on the BoDE website during open public comment periods.

Investigations—Senate Bill 92 that passed in 2012 required the Department to
employ an investigator for the board. Angela Birt was hired in November
2012 and has since been focused on providing excellent and timely
investigative services. Because she is so impressive, on September 1, 2014,
Angela became the Division’s Chief Investigator. She will continue to
oversee all complaints, but any questions, concerns, or complaints that
you may have regarding regulated dental professionals in Alaska can be
directed to Investigator Jasmin Bautista at (907)269-8026 and email:
[email protected]. If you are interested, a list of board
disciplinary actions can be found on the BoDE website.
The next scheduled meeting of the Alaska BoDE is December 5 th in Anchorage.
MONTH DAY YEAR
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