Advocacy Jeopardy

Ways to get involved

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ASDA Advocacy Month

What is November?

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What is Lobby Day?

Hundreds of students and dentists gathered in Washington D.C. March 20-22 to discuss issues affecting the profession, hear from prominent speakers and receive training on how to lobby their lawmakers. Since Lobby Day, we’ve seen several members of Congress show their support for the bills we discussed.

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Celebrating-Advocacy-Leaders---Legislative-Successes.html?soid=1102168765265&aid=fza0aOc338o

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What is ASDA Action?

You can sign up for alerts, find legislation, find elected officials and more!

ASDA Action is ASDA's text alert system that informs members about critical issues. Through ASDA Action, you can send letters to your legislators, view bills, and utilize various election features. It allows you to participate in the discussion and process that impacts your life as a dental student and future career as a dentist.

https://www.asdanet.org/asdaaction

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What is the Advocacy Certificate Program?

Earn points by participating in various advocacy initiatives listed below. The person with the most points at the end of the program earns the Excellence in Advocacy Engagement Award.

https://www.asdanet.org/index/get-involved/advocate/advocacy-certificate-program

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What past advocacy initiatives were successful?

• As of May 2023, at least 48 states (including DC) have moved to permanently accept many of the non-patient-based alternatives they began accepting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six states now accept the DLOSCE, the Dental Licensure Objective Structured Clinical Examination.
• Allowing dental students to administer vaccines during COVID-19

Legislative Priorities

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Barriers to care

What is 

• Financial hardship
• Geographic location
• Lack of insurance
• Poor oral health literacy
• Language, education or cultural barriers

https://www.asdanet.org/index/get-involved/advocate/issues-and-legislative-priorities

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ASDA Stance on Midlevel Providers

What is only dentists should be performing the following:

1. Diagnosis and treatment planning

2. Prescribing work authorizations

3. Performing surgical/irreversible dental procedures

4. Prescribing drugs and/or other medications

Studies show that the biggest barrier to dental care is finance, and not a shortage of providers.

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Vaping

What is ASDA discourages the use of tobacco, e-cigarettes, vaping products and alternatives.

More research is needed to determine the long-term effects of these products on oral health.

ASDA is a supporting organization of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End the Youth Vaping Epidemic.

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Licensure Reform: Should licensing tests use real humans?

What is taking licensure exams on models rather than human subjects

Testing on a human opens poses various ethical, reliability and validity concerns. These high-stakes, one-shot testing scenarios on human subjects must end.

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REDI (Resident Education Deferred Interest) Act

Act that allows medical and dental residents to defer their student loans, interest-free, during residency

one of the ways ASDA supports reducing student loan debt, other ways include:

• Student Loan Refinancing Act This legislation would allow borrowers to refinance federal student loans more than once, so they can take advantage of lower interest rates. ASDA lobbied for this bill at Lobby Day 2021 and 2022.
• Student Loan Refinancing and Recalculation Act. This bill directs the Department of Education (ED) to establish a program to refinance the outstanding principal, interest, and late charges on federal student loans to give borrowers fixed interest rates equal to the 10-year Treasury note rate plus 1%. Further, this bill would eliminate origination fees and would allow borrowers in dental internships or residency programs to defer student loan payments until the completion of their programs. ASDA lobbied for this bill at Lobby Day 2021.

Legislative Priorities

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Is amalgam safe?

• ASDA stands behind the scientific studies that show dental amalgam as a safe, affordable and durable material that is used to restore teeth.

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Water Fluoridation: Yay or Nay

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ recommendation for the ideal fluoride level in drinking water to prevent tooth decay is 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.

Individual jurisdictions make their own decisions on whether to fluoridate their community’s water supplies. Some states, however, mandate fluoridation for communities of a specific size.

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Vaccinations

ASDA supports the ADA Policy on Vaccine Administration. ASDA encourages dental schools to incorporate vaccine administration into their curricula and to administer vaccinations in clinical settings, when appropriate.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, ASDA supported the federal authorization that allowed dentists and dental students to vaccinate patients for COVID-19 while the public health emergency was still in effect. With proper vaccine administration training provided by dental schools, dental students were able to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by providing vaccinations to the public.

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Opioids: What is one legislative priority?

• All dental schools to provide education on evidence-based prescribing as outlined in the CODA-accreditation Standards.
• Dental schools to provide resources for dental students to appropriately address opioids with their patients and
• The American Dental Education Association to create resources that establish evidence-based prescribing practices for dental school clinics.

As of 2019, dentists prescribed approximately 6-8% of opioid analgesics and were the leading source of opioids prescribed to children and adolescents aged 10-19.

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Does Medicaid include adult dental care?

• Under the ACA, Medicaid programs are currently required to include pediatric coverage and the health insurance marketplace is required to offer pediatric dental benefits. The Medicaid Dental Benefit Act would require comprehensive dental care for adults to be part of all state Medicaid programs.