Dental Assistant and Dental Therapy Regulation
This domain tests the regulated roles that support or extend dental care: dental assistants, expanded function dental assistants, and dental therapists. Oregon uses licensure or certification categories and supervision rules to keep expanded duties tied to training.
Dental assistants and expanded functions
Basic dental assistants perform supportive duties under dentist supervision. Expanded functions, such as certain restorative or polishing procedures, require Board-recognized training and certification. Radiography requires the appropriate authorization. An expanded function dental assistant works under the supervision level the rule specifies, commonly direct supervision, and may not diagnose, treatment plan, or perform procedures outside the certified list.
Dental therapists
Oregon licenses dental therapists who practice under a collaborative agreement with a dentist. Their scope emphasizes preventive and restorative care and limited surgical services for underserved populations, with referral for complex care. A dental therapist is not an independent general dentist and cannot exceed the statutory scope or collaborative agreement.
Worked example
An expanded function dental assistant is asked to adjust a new crown's occlusion because the dentist is behind schedule. Occlusal adjustment is a dentist-level treatment decision, not a listed expanded function. The assistant should decline and have the dentist complete the adjustment. The assistant may continue authorized reversible duties.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating on-the-job training as a substitute for Board-recognized certification.
- Assuming every assistant may expose radiographs.
- Letting an expanded function assistant diagnose or treatment plan.
- Describing dental therapists as independent or unlimited in scope.