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Dental Assisting Council hears calls for formal 'retired' RDA status as licensing data show high cancellations
Summary
A retired registered dental assistant urged the council to create a formal retiree license category instead of letting licenses lapse; staff said the board lacks current statutory or regulatory authority and will consider options. Members flagged a roughly 50% apparent retention issue and suggested stakeholder-led surveys and further tracking.
Chair Deandra Epps Robbins convened the Dental Assisting Council on Nov. 6, 2025, where a retired registered dental assistant asked the council to provide a formal way to 'retire' an RDA license rather than allowing it to lapse.
Debbie Heath Bordeaux, who said she practiced as an RDA for decades and joined the meeting by WebEx, said she was advised by staff that retiring a license would simply mean not renewing it, and that she found that process unsatisfactory after a long career: "I feel like that's like not paying a bill and then waiting for someone to come and catch up with you." (Debbie Heath Bordeaux)
Tina Valerie, chief of licensing and program compliance for the dental assisting unit, confirmed how the database currently displays nonrenewals: a license lapses, may show delinquent status, and eventually appears as canceled. Board counsel Tara Welch told the council there is statutory authority in the Business and Professions Code that would allow boards to adopt regulations to create a retired-license category, but the Dental Board of California has not enacted such regulations and currently lacks statutory or regulatory authority to issue retired licenses.
Members and stakeholders discussed interim options. Member Miyazaki and others asked whether an "inactive" or fee-based status could address the concern; John Greenfield of the California Extended Functions Association noted an inactive category exists in some programs. Several stakeholders recommended surveying people whose licenses were canceled to understand drivers of the apparent retention problem; meeting materials cited about 29,108 active RDA licenses and nearly 60,000 canceled licenses, figures council members described as a roughly 50% retention rate.
What happens next: Board staff said the council could consider the concept for future rulemaking or a statutory proposal, and stakeholders suggested that a survey or targeted outreach could supply data to guide any regulatory or legislative effort. The council did not adopt any regulatory change at the Nov. 6 meeting.
