NMDA Journal Fall 2020

8 New Mexico Dental Journal, Fall 2020 NMDA: Dr.Thompson, youwere the president at the time that this task force was formed. What was the reason for forming this task force? Dr. Thompson: In 2018, there was a meeting of a group called the Coalition for Modernizing Dental Licensure. It was sort of a joint venture between the ADA, ASDA (Ameri- can Student Dental Association), and ADEA (American Dental Educators Association). They came out with a report that describes some problems or some issues that needed to be addressed regarding dental licensure. Last year, state dental associations were asked to evaluate their recommendations, and we felt NMDA needed to delve deeper into that conversation and so we put together a task force to address that. NMDA: Dr. Martin as the chair of that task force, what did you see the task force's charge to be? Dr. Martin: Our first charge was to evaluate: Does New Mexico need to establish a policy statement on licensing and examinations? If so, what would that policy be? We began the taskforce by actually looking at the push for this. Has this come up within our state to date? So, it began and unfolded from there. We met for the first time in November and continued into the new year. It actually gained new significance as COVID evolved. NMDA:The whole idea of modernization of licensure has been largely pushed by younger dentists and as a younger dentist, I amwondering about what your perspective is on some of the reasoning behind looking at modernizing dental licensure. Dr. Thompson: Well, I think there are definitely two issues that affect new dentists in different ways. Mobility is a very important issue for young dentists. Over half of dental stu- dents actually moved to a different state from where they went to dental school. Taking a regional board exam in that area might not serve them when it comes to the licensing process. Portability of dental licenses between states is really important too. Young dentists tend to move between states before getting settled and having the financial burden of taking multiple regional licensing exams creates a burden. In addition to the portability aspect, I think some young dentists also fear the fairness aspect of single-encounter tests, knowing that so many dif- ferent things can go wrong in terms of patient selection and luck of the draw. The subject of licensing and examinations can be divisive, but the NewMexico Dental Association established a taskforce to work through the issues and recommend policies to the Association. We recently sat down with three members of the taskforce, Drs. Jennifer Thompson, KimMartin, and Julius Manz to discuss their thoughts on the subject. ACONVERSATION ONLICENSINGAND EXAMINATIONS