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Web site maintained by the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Health, Bureau of Oral Health Services. The site was developed with support from the Anthem Foundation of Ohio and is maintained with support from the Delta Dental Foundation of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.

Ohio State Dental Board Special Needs Program

Relative to dental care delivery, the term “special needs program” is mostly unique to Ohio. The term was originally used in the Ohio Administrative Code’s (OAC) definition of “supervision” to describe situations in which a dentist did not have to be physically present when dental hygienists provided services subsequent to the examination and diagnosis by that dentist and in accordance with his or her treatment plan. The situations covered in the term special needs program referred to what could be categorized as public and not-for-profit settings.

Once the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) was amended to permit dental hygienists in other settings to provide services without the presence of a dentist, the difference between so-called special needs programs and private practice settings was greatly reduced. Those differences are described in ORC 4715.22(D) for settings defined in OAC 4715-3-01(L) as special needs programs and in ORC 4715.22(C) for all others. The differences relate to the grandfathering in of the previous requirements for special needs programs rather than the expanded requirements in the new rules for other settings. The rules for dental hygienist practice without a dentist present in settings consistent with the definition of special need programs (OAC 4715-9-05) are identical to the statutory language. The procedures that are not permitted when a dentist is not physically present are detailed in OAC 43715-9-05(E).

Because dental screening is not specified in the permissible duties of a dental hygienist (OAC 4715-9-05(A)), the Ohio Department of Health queried the Ohio State Dental Board about the permissibility of a dental hygienist conducting dental screenings (e.g., in schools, Head Start sites) without a dentist present. The response to that query stated that it was permissible in special needs programs. The Ohio State Dental Board approved a broad array of public and not-for-profit special need programs in 2005 and continues to consider individual applications. The approval language is on pages 20-21 and the list in 33-49 of the meeting minutes from February 2005.