MSDA membership offers a voice for the dental profession in the policy-making halls in Annapolis and Washington DC. Advocacy is a crucial component of the Maryland State Dental Association’s mission. One simple signature can completely change the dental community. Through lobbying, testifying, tracking regulations, and grassroots projects, MSDA fights for and against policies that have the power to change your practice and your patients’ health.
Public policy advocacy raises awareness of MSDA’s mission and builds our profession’s capacity to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of Marylanders. The advocacy efforts of the MSDA allow the dental profession to speak with one voice and be active when dentists can’t be there in person. It’s difficult to find the time as individual dentists to learn the minutiae of legislation, fight legislation that harms the industry, and even more importantly advocate for policies that create benefits for our patients and our profession. We need a seat at the table, and MSDA gives us EACH a seat at the table. And, while MSDA’s advocacy work provides us exponentially better opportunities for success, there is no substitute for individual members making phone calls, sending emails and attending events. Our achievements depend on the combined efforts of our dentists and the MSDA advocacy efforts.
- Ensuring that dentists, not private equity owners or non-dentists, are making the clinical decisions for their patients.
- Taking a comprehensive look at the barriers to care and what we can do to address them in a manner that actually works for Maryland.
- Providing the Board of Dental Examiners and the proper authorities with the tools to deal with those who are illegally practicing dentistry.
- Fighting legislation that puts patients at risk by allowing some of our most vulnerable Marylanders, to be seen without proper examinations by licensed dentists.
- Championed legislation to support dental workforce issues that expand the duties of dental assistants in the practice.
Imagine what Dentistry would look like WITHOUT the MSDA.