Dental Assisting Council refers infection-control regulation draft back to working group after stakeholder concerns

The Dental Assisting Council on Feb. 6 voted to refer a proposed update to minimum infection-control regulations back to the council's working group after stakeholders and council members raised technical and implementation concerns.

The proposed regulatory text would have amended CCR Title 16, Section 1,005 to update the board's infection-control standards; Brent Nelson, the council's legislative and regulatory specialist, told the council that "The Board last updated the language way back in 2011. CDC guidelines were last updated in June 2024," and staff recommended forwarding the draft (attachment 2) to the Dental Hygiene Board of California for consensus before initiating rulemaking.

Council members and multiple public commenters urged further revision. Stakeholders and instructors raised operational concerns about provisions that they said were unclear or infeasible in practice: the order in which cleaning methods are listed (hand scrubbing versus ultrasonic cleaning), repeated use of the word "immediately" for sterilization and changing…