IFDH eNews: December 2025
Member News
Australia
OHAA 2025 Congress
The 2025 Oral Health Association of Australia (OHAA) National Congress, held on the Gold Coast in October, brought together 500 delegates for three days of dynamic learning, professional growth, networking, and collaboration. Expert-led presentations and hands-on workshops covered advanced clinical techniques, prevention strategies, and patient-centered care, with highlights including periodontal instrumentation, restorative innovations, culturally safe care, minimal intervention for aging populations, and many more engaging topics. Industry exhibitors showcased cutting-edge technologies that reinforced the importance of innovation and partnership. Looking forward to Tasmania in 2026!
Canada
New Resource: 5 Facts You Should Know About Dental Hygienists
If you’re looking for a quick, plain language way to explain your role as a Dental Hygienist to the public, download and share our newest bilingual resource, "5 Facts You Should Know About Dental Hygienists." Offer it to patients, distribute it at community events, or share on social media.
Getting Started with AI: Practice Insights for Dental Hygienists
Discover how artificial intelligence (AI) in Dental Hygiene can transform your practice in CDHA’s latest webinar! This session introduces Dental Hygienists to the role of AI in dental hygiene care, covering machine learning, neural networks, and data analytics, explained in straightforward terms. Non-member pricing is just $25.
Czech Republic
Two Fall Meetings
It was a busy season for us, as we hosted the Annual General Meeting of the European Dental Hygienists Federation (EDHF) in Prague in September. We also organized the two-day Autumn Conference in November.
Denmark
Reform of the Dental Care for Adults in Denmark
The Danish Government announced in October, that they will put forward a proposal for a new legislation regulating the Dental care for adults in Denmark and the legislation will be adopted in the first half of 2026. This schedule leaves little time for political negotiations and for organizations like The Danish Dental Hygienists to influence the process and the proposed legislation. Nevertheless, this is one of the important goals that the organization will be working on for the next months. Focus will be on ensuring: 1) that the work of the dental hygienists is valued higher, 2) the work area of the dental hygienists is expanded, 3) more education places for dental hygienists, and 4) ensuring better conditions for dental hygienists who want to make their own clinic.
A New and Third Place of Education for Dental Hygienists
From 2027, there will be a third place of education, when students, who want to become a Dental Hygienist, have the opportunity to pick their place of education. This new and third place of education will open in Odense, where the Southern University of Denmark is also located. This is the result of the intense work of the Danish Dental Hygienists during the last 3 years. A result that we as an organization are very happy and proud of. With the new place of education another 50 education places will be permanently added to the number of students who will be admitted to the education, rising from 151 students to 201 students per year.
Japan
20th Annual Meeting in Tokyo
The 20th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Dental Hygiene was held in Tokyo in November, with more than 1,400 participants in attendance. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Utilizing Digital Transformation (DX) in Dental Care.” A variety of special and educational lectures, as well as symposiums, were organized around this theme. In total, 33 oral presentations and 90 poster presentations were given in the general research sessions. Additionally, specialized research meetings were held to further explore and advance the professional specialties of Japanese dental hygienists.
United States
California Annual Conference
The ADHA25 Annual Conference was held in October in Long Beach, California. The meeting focused on partnerships, legislative agendas, understanding the 2025 Standards for Clinical Dental Hygiene, and networking and educational sessions for clinicians, educators, researchers, and public health dental hygienists. The 2025 ADHA Award winners were also honored at various conference events.
White Papers in Progress
ADHA introduced a scope of practice white paper entitled “Missed Potential: How Expanding Dental Hygienists’ Roles Can Bridge America’s Oral Health Gaps”. Additional white papers on self-regulation, self-governance, Dental Hygiene diagnosis, and Doctoral Dental Hygiene education are in progress.
Interactive Licensure Map Announced
ADHA also recently introduced an Interactive Licensure Map for new licensees and Dental Hygienists preparing to renew their licensure. Current association activity is listed at ADHA.org/WorkingForYou.