The Drive to Mandate

Tony Phillips, CDT, counts himself as a supporter of NBC’s Certified Dental Technician program. That doesn’t mean that this laboratory owner in Florida’s panhandle supports the Florida Dental Laboratory Association’s move to ask legislators to mandate at least one CDT in every Florida dental laboratory.

FDLA is working to gain the support of the Florida Dental Association before lobbying the Florida legislature next year to mandate that all Florida dental laboratories employ at least one Certified Dental Technician in order to operate. The goal is to ensure that Florida laboratories employ competently trained individuals. Kentucky, South Carolina and Texas are the only states that require some level of certification for dental technicians and laboratories. A side-by-side listing of the requirements in those states can be viewed here.

Phillips fears that the FDLA’s initiative would be inequitable to technicians who aren’t CDTs, but are talented technicians. Also, he worries the mandate could give rise to token CDTs - for example, a full-service laboratory employs a CDT certified in crown and bridge to meet the requirement, but nothing guarantees the laboratory is competent to produce dentures, for example.

“To say you have one token CDT in laboratory that doesn’t give the laboratory a complete knowledge base in all specialties,” Phillips said.

The majority FDLA’s members who participated in an association survey said they would be supportive of legislation mandating laboratories in Florida have at least one Certified Dental Technician on staff, said FDLA president Errol Morgan, CDT. According to Focus, the association’s magazine, the results “were approximately a 4-1 response in favor of moving forward.”

Morgan and board member Charles McClemens, CDT, say they have heard some arguments against the initiative similar to Phillips’ concerns, but that those arguments don’t hold water.

“I don’t think it’s going to put any laboratories out of business,” McClemens said. “If they’re in business for themselves and they’ve satisfied their clients and patients, they’ll do very well on a CDT test.”

Morgan agreed and cited the CDT designation’s professional appeal as the best reason for the mandate.

“It would encourage those who have not reached that level to do so and it would make us as dental technicians look more professional,” he said.

The FDLA’s board voted to seek the legislative change during the 2006 legislative session. The Florida Dental Association’s board will not vote on a position on the proposed legislation until their December 2005 board meeting and could postpone the decision until January when their full house of delegates meets.