By Arlene Cearns, CDABC President

On May 23, 2014, the College of Dental Surgeons held their annual general meeting. For the first time in the history of licensed dental assisting in our province, CDAs were eligible to vote!

Ever since the college has been certifying dental assistants as trained and fit to work intraorally, they have been charging a fee for that certification. As delegated by government, they have been regulating us, using our licence fees to support their mandate to protect the public, and creating a fund of property and money to support that mandate. Until 2014, we have had absolutely no say in how our fees were used or invested. We did and do have CDA members on the College board of directors, but not as many as in the past. Our representation was reduced without our having a say, but our actual licensing fees remained the same.

Last year, the board of directors of CDSBC passed a motion (proposed by a CDA member), to grant voting privileges to all properly registered CDAs. While it took the government some time to agree, pressure from the current College board and staff got a positive response in time for this year 's AGM. The board of CDABC was privileged to be able to send two representatives on your behalf to take advantage of this long withheld right.

In the future, CDAs will be able to bring our issues to the college AGM and have those issues heard! At next year's AGM, I hope to see CDAs outnumber the dentists present (after all, we outnumber them in real life), and show our regulator that we understand and appreciate the right we now hold.