Section 33.1. Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

ASA CLASS I—A classification of patient status developed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists for a patient without systemic disease.

ASA CLASS II—A classification of patient status developed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists for a patient with mild systemic disease.

ASA CLASS III—A classification of patient status developed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists for a patient with severe systemic disease that limits activity but is not incapacitating.

ASA CLASS IV—A classification of patient status developed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists for a patient with incapacitating systemic disease that is a constant threat to life.

ASA CLASS V—A classification of patient status developed by the American Society of Anesthesiologists for a moribund patient not expected to survive 24 hours with or without operation.

Act—The Dental Law (63 P. S. § § 120—130i), which regulates the licensure of dentists and dental hygienists and the practice of dentistry and practice as a dental hygienist in this Commonwealth.

Auxiliary personnel—Persons who perform dental supportive procedures authorized by the act and this chapter under the general or direct supervision of a dentist.

Board regulated practitioner—A dentist, dental hygienist, public health dental hygiene practitioner or expanded function dental assistant.

Bureau—The Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs of the Commonwealth.

Child abuse—A term meaning any of the following:

(i) A recent act or failure to act by a perpetrator which causes nonaccidental serious physical injury to a child under 18 years of age.

(ii) An act or failure to act by a perpetrator which causes nonaccidental serious mental injury to or sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child under 18 years of age.

(iii) A recent act, failure to act or series of acts or failures to act by a perpetrator which creates an imminent risk of serious physical injury to or sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child under 18 years of age.

(iv) Serious physical neglect by a perpetrator constituting prolonged or repeated lack of supervision or the failure to provide the essentials of life, including adequate medical care, which endangers a child’s life or development or impairs the child’s functioning.

ChildLine—An organizational unit of the Department of Public Welfare which operates a 24-hour a day Statewide toll free telephone system for receiving reports of suspected child abuse, referring reports for investigation and maintaining the reports in the appropriate file.

Continuing education certificate—A document prepared by the program sponsor which contains the title of the course, the dates attended or completed and the hours of education completed.

Coronal polishing—

(i) A procedure limited to the supragingival removal of light plaque and extrinsic stain from the exposed natural and restored surfaces of the teeth using a rotary instrument with a rubber cup or brush and a polishing agent.

(ii) The term does not include calculus removal.

Credit hour—A minimum unit of continuing education consisting of 60 minutes of instruction. Programs longer than 60 minutes will be credited in 30 minute increments.

Current patient—

(i) A person that is in the process of dental treatment with a Board-regulated practitioner or who has been treated by the Board-regulated practitioner within the previous 3 months.

(ii) The term does not include a patient who has terminated the Board-regulated practitioner/patient relationship by being accepted as a patient of record at another dental practice.

Dental clinic—A public or quasipublic institution operated not for profit which has as a primary purpose providing dental health care.

Department—The Department of State of the Commonwealth.

Direct supervision—Supervision by a dentist who examines the patient, authorizes the procedure to be performed, is physically present in the dental facility and available during performance of the procedure, and examines and takes full professional responsibility for the completed procedure.

EFDA program—An expanded function dental assisting training program.

General supervision—In a dental facility, supervision by a dentist who examines the patient, develops a treatment plan, authorizes the performance of dental hygiene services to be performed within 1 year of the examination, and takes full professional responsibility for the performance of the dental hygienist. In facilities identified in § 33.205(c)(2) and (3) (relating to practice as a dental hygienist), general supervision is defined in § 33.205 (d)(2).

Individual residing in the same home as the child—An individual who is 14 years of age or older and who resides in the same home as the child.

Individual study—A course of continuing education offered by an approved program sponsor, which permits the participant to learn without interacting with an instructor or interactive learning methodologies and which requires a passing grade on a written examination or workbook.

Local anesthesia—The elimination of sensations, especially pain, in one part of the body by regional injection of an anesthetic agent.

Perpetrator—A person who has committed child abuse and is a parent of the child, a person responsible for the welfare of a child, an individual residing in the same home as a child or a paramour of a child’s parent.

Person responsible for the child’s welfare—A person who provides permanent or temporary care, supervision, mental health diagnosis or treatment, training or control of a child in lieu of parental care, supervision and control. The term does not include a person who is employed by or provides services or programs in a public or private school, intermediate unit or area vocational-technical school.

Program sponsor—The party approved by the Board who is responsible for the development and presentation of the continuing dental education program.

Public health dental hygiene practitioner—A licensed dental hygienist who is certified by the Board as having met the requirements of section 11.9 of the act (63 P. S. § 130j), and who is authorized to perform dental hygiene services in accordance with § 33.205b (relating to practice as a public health dental hygiene practitioner) without the authorization, assignment or examination of a dentist.

Recent acts or omissions—Acts or omissions committed within 2 years of the date of the report to the Department of Public Welfare or county agency.

Serious mental injury—A psychological condition, as diagnosed by a physician or licensed psychologist, including the refusal of appropriate treatment, that does one or more of the following:

(i) Renders a child chronically and severely anxious, agitated, depressed, socially withdrawn, psychotic or in reasonable fear that the child’s life or safety is threatened.

(ii) Seriously interferes with a child’s ability to accomplish age-appropriate developmental and social tasks.

Serious physical injury—An injury that causes a child severe pain or significantly impairs a child’s physical functioning, either temporarily or permanently.

Sexual abuse or exploitation—The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement or coercion of a child to engage in or assist another person to engage in sexually explicit conduct or a simulation of sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction, including photographing, videotaping, computer depicting or filming, of sexually explicit conduct or the rape, sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, molestation, incest, indecent exposure, prostitution, statutory sexual assault or other form of sexual exploitation of children.

Sexual misconduct—Any conduct with a current patient, including words, gestures or expressions, actions or any combination thereof, which is sexual in nature, or which may be construed by a reasonable person as sexual in nature.

Subgingival agents—Therapeutic agents, including antimicrobials, antibiotics, antiseptics or anesthetics, placed below the free margin of the gingiva by a local delivery system or device, including injectable systems for ointments, gels or pastes, and degradable or nondegradable devices, such as fibers, films, strips, slabs, spheres, discs or chips.

The provisions of this § 33.1 adopted April 4, 1949; amended June 23, 1995, effective June 24, 1995, 25 Pa.B. 2492; amended November 8, 1996, effective November 9, 1996, 26 Pa.B. 5410; corrected November 22, 1996, effective November 9, 1996, 26 Pa.B. 5700; amended August 11, 2000, effective August 12, 2000, 30 Pa.B. 4245; amended November 14, 2008, effective November 15, 2008, 38 Pa.B. 6279; amended December 11, 2009, effective December 12, 2009, 39 Pa.B. 6982; amended February 10, 2012, effective February 11, 2012, 42 Pa.B. 769; amended September 7, 2012, effective September 8, 2012, 42 Pa.B. 5736. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (360161) to (360165).

Notation

Authority

The provisions of this § 33.1 amended under the Child Protective Services Law (23 Pa.C.S. § 6383(b)(2)); sections 3, 4.1(a)(8) and 10.1 of The Dental Law (63 P. S. § § 122, 123(a)(8) and 129.1); and section 4 of the act of April 29, 2010 (P. L. 176, No. 19).

Notes of Decisions

Ripeness

Petition for review of these regulations was dismissed as the association of dental hygienists’ allegations of direct and immediate harm did not establish the justiciability of a pre-enforcement challenge to this regulation. The association’s allegations of change in their work schedule, reduced availability of dental hygiene services, reduced income, possible unemployment and the uncertainty of the ongoing day-to-day operations of dental hygiene care are merely anticipatory, speculative and too remote to support a claim of direct and immediate harm. Pennsylvania Dental Hygienists’ Association v. State Board of Dentistry, 672 A.2d 414 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1996).

Cross References

This section cited in 49 Pa. Code § 33.202 (relating to fictitious names).