Compliance guides and regulatory updates for California dental practices covering the Dental Board of California, Title 17, infection control, OSHA requirements, and state-specific dental regulations.
In February 2024, the Change Healthcare cyberattack crippled healthcare and billing information operations nationwide. Investigations into the cyberattack have revealed evidence that the hack started when cybercriminals entered a server that lacked a basic form of security: multifactor authentication. Being…
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with the media, has reported on recent outbreaks of measles cases in the United States. On March 29, CNN published a news story reporting that measles cases for March 2024…
The Dental Board of California (DBC) recently announced that beginning August 1, 2024, all California dispensers of controlled substances (CS) will be required to report dispensations to an updated version of the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES)…
On March 14, 2024, the Dental Board of California (DBC) issued a fraud alert regarding a recent phishing scam targeting DBC licensees. The DBC alerted the public about a similar scam with slightly different nuances two years ago. Scam artists…
In February, two dental practices faced extreme violence in the workplace. The first occurred on February 7, 2024, at a clinic in New Orleans, when an allegedly unhinged woman entered the dental office, asked to speak with the dentist, and…
The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) exempts dentistry, as a low-risk industry, from posting and maintaining the OSHA Form 300 Log, and from reporting that information to OSHA. The OSHA Form 300 Log provides a summary of work-related…
In October 2023, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 553 into law, which requires nearly all California employers, with very few exceptions, to create and implement a written workplace violence prevention plan by July 1, 2024. The plan must be…
X-ray shielding using leaded covers is a common practice that is used to reduce radiation exposure to sensitive tissue. Specifically, shielding of reproductive organs is a long-standing practice that aims to reduce the risk of radiation-induced hereditary effects, and is…
Weekly sterilizer monitoring, using biological indicators, in a dental office is an important part of infection control verification. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Dental Association recommend, and most state dental boards require, that…
According to the DBC’s Infection Control Regulation, contaminated “critical and semi-critical instruments shall be cleaned and sterilized before use…” Instrument cleaning should be performed using manual or automated processes according to instrument manufacturer’s instructions. If instruments are not cleaned before…
