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Dental Squadron re-accredited by the American Dental Association

  • Published
  • By Airman Megan Friedl
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  The 375th Dental Squadron was re-accredited by the Council of Dental Accreditation, a part of the American Dental Association, May 15.

Every seven years, volunteers affiliated with the general dental residency come to the dental squadron to validate standards and the training being done for the residents.

The ADA begins the re-accreditation by sending the organization a program analysis checklist for residents to use as a reference before the actual inspection begins. They have to complete the checklist 60 days before the inspection.

Lt. Col. Gerry Whisler, 375th Dental Squadron, director for Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency program and flight commander of residency flight, has led the planning and preparing for the re-accreditation.

The dental team reviewed their documents to ensure they were inspection ready.

Airman 1st Class Terra Sanders, 375th Dental Squadron resident technician, said, "During the process it was really difficult, and it took a lot of extra time and dedication."

The study is then followed up with a site visit. All of the organization's documents were looked over. They had a close out meeting to review and determine what kind of comments to be made. They don't have any jurisdictional authority, but they submit a report of their findings to the council. The council reviews it and sends back a report. The squadron sends another report back and twice a year the council meets to look over the reports to determine whether or not to fully accredit the residency.

This time the site visitors had two main suggestions to report about.

Whisler said, "The suggestions were made partly because the visitors don't understand how we do things in the Air Force all the time and some of the constraints we have."

The visitors pointed out one of the issues were how they documented medical records. They're currently in a transition from a paper record to an electronic record.

The inspectors addressed the standard of some of the experiences they need to provide for the residents. Because of the young, healthy population of the Air Force it can be challenging to provide advanced training in removal of prosthetics.

Whisler said to avoid the problem in the future, they will modify the way they have their competency proficiency standards written and take the emphasis off of the removal of dentures and prosthetics.

"Overall the site visit was really positive and was encouraging to know that we're doing a good job," said Whisler.