American Association of Dental Boards

The American Association of Dental Boards, founded in 1883, is composed of state dental boards within the United States and Canada, as well as both past and present members of those boards, board administrators, educators, and board attorneys. The AADB focuses on licensure issues and the sharing of information.

The AADB and its member boards seek foremost to protect the public. One of the problems which challenges state boards of dentistry is assuring the public that dental practitioners currently licensed in their state, and practitioners who move from state-to-state, practice in accordance with state dental practice acts.

In 1981, the AADB General Assembly adopted a resolution to investigate the feasibility of establishing a clearinghouse of final disciplinary actions taken against violators of state dental practice acts. After reviewing a detailed report from the AADB Executive Council, the 1982 General Assembly adopted a resolution directing the Association to establish a Clearinghouse for Board Actions. In response to the resolution, the AADB Central Office sent out a request to all state boards asking for participation in the Clearinghouse. As a result, a manual system of data collection and compilation was implemented. In 1989, the AADB recognized the need for computerizing and enhancing the Clearinghouse. This need was pursued, and the AADB was awarded a contract by the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration to meet these needs.

The purpose of the Clearinghouse is to provide a central register where the final actions taken by the boards of dental examiners may be recorded, and accessed. Information indicating whether an individual has been involved in a board action may be obtained on request from the AADB. The Clearinghouse does not currently provide malpractice information or verify credentials.

Only practitioners who have been sanctioned are listed in the AADB’s Clearinghouse for Board Actions. Authorized users of the Clearinghouse submit queries by providing practitioner names and their associated biographical data to the Clearinghouse. These inquiries are matched against the information in the database. Any errors in biographical information submitted by the user will adversely affect the outcome of the search.

Clearinghouse information is intended to serve as a “flagging system.” Please note that any information provided to an organization is to be kept confidential and cannot be released, directly or indirectly, to any other person, party, entity, or organization. If there is a report on a practitioner, an organization must directly contact the reporting agency in order to obtain current information from the primary source. Information may be released to the organization’s clients only if allowed by the primary source. Under no circumstances, however, may an organization provide AADB reports to other clients or to other locations of that organization. In order for an organization to screen through the AADB, a valid contract must be in place between that organization and the AADB.