Category: ODA Today

Membership dues statements and electronic renewal notices were recently sent out to ODA members. Members who indicated previously that they prefer to receive membership communications electronically will not receive a paper statement in the mail and will only receive e-notifications. Dues were due Jan. 1, 2026, for the 2026 membership year. Renew ... [continue reading]

The American Dental Association has released the CDT 2026, which took effect Jan. 1, 2026. The new CDT 2026 is the HIPAA-recognized code set for dentistry. The CDT 2026 features 31 new codes, 14 revisions, and covers saliva testing, prosthetics, implant maintenance, photobiomodulation, anesthesia, and more. The ADA offers several CDT coding ... [continue reading]

The Ohio Dental Association is seeking nominations for its 2026 Awards of Excellence program. The ODA’s Awards of Excellence program recognizes those who offer distinguished service to dentistry and improve oral health care by offering treatment, outreach or education. Members and local dental societies are encouraged to nominate those ... [continue reading]

Leadership has become one of those words we hear everywhere, often attached to promises of quick fixes or secret formulas. A simple Google search for “How do I become a better leader” brings up an endless stream of courses and books, each claiming to hold the key. As someone who has spent years as an unofficial student of leadership, I’ve ... [continue reading]

The ADA Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct (ADA Code) addresses several aspects of a dentist’s representation of his or her fees and related billing issues. For example, the ADA Code states that dentists shall not represent fees for providing care in a false or misleading manner. One way a dentist might do that is by ... [continue reading]

A well-defined office manual can be of great benefit to a dental practice. Employment issues are some of the most difficult matters to confront as a small-business owner. Oftentimes, the best way for employer dentists to avoid the common problems that arise with employees is to establish an office employee manual. Establishing an employee ... [continue reading]

The dentists who volunteer on the Ohio Dental Association’s Dental Insurance Working Group meet every month to help individual ODA members who encounter dental insurance problems they are unable to resolve on their own. “In addressing individual dentists’ submissions to our working group, we have identified numerous instances where ... [continue reading]

One of the more common calls the Ohio Dental Association receives from member dentists involves the coordination of benefits (or possible issuance of refunds) for patients who are covered by multiple dental benefit plans. If such questions areis in your practice, save the two charts below as a reference on coordination of benefits. Ohio Revised ... [continue reading]

The question caught me off guard. After a long day in our clinic in the rural town of Xenocoj, Guatemala, one of the local dentists approached me with genuine curiosity. We had just finished treating dozens of patients alongside 12 dental students from Ohio State, and he wanted to know: “How are the patients you’re seeing here different ... [continue reading]

“I can’t spend the rest of my life asking if this is AI or not.” – unknown Authenticity and automation are two words with similar etymologic origin, “autos” deriving from the Greek word for “self.”  Both words could apply to the conversation at hand regarding AI in dentistry and to AI in our broader lives. One could say that ... [continue reading]