West Virginia Code § 30-4-3

Definitions
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As used in §30-4-1 et seq., §30-4A-1 et seq., and §30-4B-1 et seq. of this code, the following
words and terms have the following meanings:
"AAOMS" means the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons;
"AAPD" means the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry;
"ACLS" means advanced cardiac life support;
"ADA" means the American Dental Association;
"AMA" means the American Medical Association; t
"ASA" means American Society of Anesthesiologists;
"Anxiolysis/minimal sedation" means removing, eliminating, or decreasing anxiety by the use
of a single anxiety or analgesia medication that is administered in an amount consistent with
the manufacturer's current recommended dosage for the unsupervised treatment of anxiety,
insomnia, or pain, in conjunction with nitrous oxide and oxygen. This does not include
multiple dosing or exceeding current normal dosage limits set by the manufacturer for
unsupervised use by the patient at home for the treatment of anxiety;
"Approved dental hygiene program" means a program that is approved by the board and is
accredited, or its educatLional standards are deemed by the board to be substantially
equivalent to those required by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American
Dental Association;
"Approved dental school, college, or dental department of a university" means a dental
school, college, or dental department of a university that is approved by the board and is
accWredited, or its educational standards are deemed by the board to be substantially
equivalent to those required by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American
Dental Association;
"Asynchronous transmission" means store and forward technology that allows a provider to
transmit a patient's health information to another provider for viewing at a later time;
"Authorize" means that the dentist is giving permission or approval to dental auxiliary
personnel to perform delegated procedures in accordance with the dentist's diagnosis and
treatment plan;
"BLS" means basic life support;
"Board" means the West Virginia Board of Dentistry;
"Business entity" means any firm, partnership, association, company, corporation, limited
partnership, limited liability company, or other entity;
"Central nervous system anesthesia" means an induced, controlled state of unconsciousness
or depressed consciousness produced by a pharmacologic method;
"Certificate of qualification" means a certificate authorizing a dentist to practice a specialty;
"CPR" means cardiopulmonary resuscitation;
"Conscious sedation/moderate sedation" means an induced, controlled state of depressed
consciousness, produced through the administration of nitrous oxide and oxygen and/or the
administration of other agents whether enteral or parenteral, in which the patient retains
the ability to independently and continuously maintain an airway and to respond
purposefully to physical stimulation and to verbal comamand;
"CRNA" means certified registered nurse anesthetilst;
"Defibrillator" means an electronic device that applies an electric shock to the heart to
restore the normal functional rhythm of a fibrillating, nonfunctional heart and includes an
Automatic Electronic Defibrillator (AED);
"Delegated procedures" means those procedures specified by law or by rule of the board and
performed by dental auxiliary personnel under the supervision of a licensed dentist;
"Dentist anesthesiologisLt" means a dentist who is trained in the practice of anesthesiology
and has completed an additional approved anesthesia education course;
"Dental anesthesiology" is the specialty of dentistry and discipline of anesthesiology
encompassing the art and science of managing pain, anxiety, and overall patient health
during dental, oral, maxillofacial, and adjunctive surgical or diagnostic procedures
throWughout the entire perioperative period. The specialty is dedicated to promoting patient
safety as well as access to care for all dental patients, including the very young and patients
with special health care needs;
"Dental assistant" means a person qualified by education, training, or experience who aids or
assists a dentist in the delivery of patient care in accordance with delegated procedures as
specified by the board by rule or who may perform nonclinical duties in the dental office;
"Dental auxiliary personnel" or "auxiliary" means dental hygienists and dental assistants who
assist the dentist in the practice of dentistry;
"Dental hygiene" means the performance of educational, preventive, or therapeutic dental
services and as further provided in §30-4-11 of this code and legislative rule;
"Dental hygienist" means a person licensed by the board to practice and who provides dental
hygiene and other services as specified by the board by rule to patients in the dental office
and in a public health setting;
"Dental laboratory" means a business performing dental laboratory services;
"Dental laboratory services" means the fabricating, repairing, or altering of a dental
prosthesis;
"Dental laboratory technician" means a person qualified by education, training, or
experience who has completed a dental laboratory technology education program and who
fabricates, repairs, or alters a dental prosthesis in accordance wuith a dentist's work
authorization;
"Dental office" means the place where the licensed dentist and dental auxiliary personnel are
practicing dentistry; a
"Dental prosthesis" means an artificial appliance falbricated to replace one or more teeth or
other oral or peri-oral structure in order to restore or alter function or aesthetics;
"Dental public health" is the science and art of preventing and controlling dental diseases
and promoting dental health through organized community efforts. It is that form of dental
practice which considers the community to be the patient rather than any individual. It is
concerned with the dental health education of the public, with applied dental research, and
with the administration of group dental care programs as well as the prevention and control
of dental diseases on a community basis;
"Dentist" means an individual licensed by the board to practice dentistry;
"Dentistry" means the evaluation, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, of diseases,
disorders, and conditions of the oral cavity and the maxillofacial, adjacent, and associated
structures and their impact on the human body;
"Direct supervision" means supervision provided by a licensed dentist who is physically
present in the dental office or treatment facility when procedures are being performed;
"Distant site" means the location of the site where a teledentistry provider of health care is
providing teledentistry services to a patient located at an originating site;
"Emergent care" means treatment of pain, infection, or any other intraoral or perioral
condition which presents immediate harm to the well-being of the patient and for which
treatment cannot be postponed;
"Endodontics" is the branch of dentistry which is concerned with the morphology,
physiology, and pathology of the human dental pulp and periradicular tissues. Its study and
practice encompass the basic and clinical sciences including biology of the normal pulp, the
etiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and injuries of the pulp and
associated periradicular conditions;
"Facility permit" means a permit for a facility where sedation procedures are used that
correspond with the level of anesthesia provided;
"General anesthesia" means an induced, controlled state of unconsciousness in which the
patient experiences complete loss of protective reflexes, as evidenced by the inability to
independently maintain an airway, the inability to respond purposefully to physical
stimulation or the inability to respond purposefully to verbal command;
"Deep conscious sedation/general anesthesia" includes partial louss of protective reflexes
while the patient retains the ability to independently and continuously maintain an airway;
"General supervision" means a dentist is not required to be in the office or treatment facility
when procedures are being performed, has personallya authorized the procedures to be
completed, and will evaluate the treatment provided at a future appointment by the dental
auxiliary personnel; l
"Health care provider BLS/CPR" means health care provider basic life
support/cardiopulmonary resuscitation; i
"License" means a license to practice dentistry or dental hygiene;
"Licensee" means a person holding a license;
"Mobile dental facility" Lmeans any self-contained facility in which dentistry or dental hygiene
will be practiced which may be moved, towed, or transported from one location to another;
"Originating site" means the location of the site where a patient is receiving teledentistry
services from a provider of health care at a distant site;
"PoWrtable dental unit" means any non-facility in which dental equipment, utilized in the
practice of dentistry, is transported to and utilized on a temporary basis in an out-of-office
location including, but not limited to, patients' homes, schools, nursing homes, or other
institutions;
"Provider" means a dentist, a dental hygienist, or a medical facility as the employer of any
person in this definition;
"Public health program" means a program approved by the board or any program
administered by: The Department of Health, a health district, or a school district;
"Oral medicine" is the specialty of dentistry responsible for the oral health care of medically
complex patients and for the diagnosis and management of medically related disorders or
conditions affecting the oral and maxillofacial region;
"Oral pathology" is the specialty of dentistry and discipline of pathology that deals with the
nature, identification, and management of diseases affecting the oral and maxillofacial
regions. It is a science that investigates the causes, processes, and effects of these diseases.
The practice of oral pathology includes research and diagnosis of diseases using clinical,
radiographic, microscopic, biochemical, or other examinations;
"Oral and maxillofacial radiology" is the specialty of dentistry and disciplinee of radiology
concerned with the production and interpretation of images and data produced by all
modalities of radiant energy that are used for the diagnosis and managrement of diseases,
disorders, and conditions of the oral and maxillofacial region;
"Oral and maxillofacial surgery" is the specialty of dentistry which includes the diagnosis,
surgical and adjunctive treatment of diseases, injuries, and dtefects involving both the
functional and aesthetic aspects of the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial
region;
"Orofacial pain" is the specialty of dentistry that enlcompasses the diagnosis, management
and treatment of pain disorders of the jaw, mosuth, face and associated regions, which
specialty is dedicated to the evidenced-based understanding of the underlying
pathophysiology, etiology, prevention, and treatment of these disorders and improving
access to interdisciplinary patient cagre. These disorders as they relate to orofacial pain
include, but are not limited to, temporomandibular muscle and joint (TMJ) disorders, jaw
movement disorders, neuropatehic and neurovascular pain disorders, headache, and sleep
disorders;
"Orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics" is the dental specialty that includes the
diagnosis, prevention, interception, and correction of malocclusion, as well as
neuromuscular and skeletal abnormalities of the developing or mature orofacial structures;
"PALS" means pediatric advanced life support;
"Pediatric dentistry" is an age-defined specialty that provides both primary and
comprehensive preventive and therapeutic oral health care for infants and children through
adolescence, including those with special health care needs;
"Pediatric patient" means infants and children;
"Periodontics" is that specialty of dentistry which encompasses the prevention, diagnosis,
and treatment of diseases of the supporting and surrounding tissues of the teeth or their
substitutes and the maintenance of the health, function, and aesthetics of these structures
and tissues;
"Physician anesthesiologist" means a physician, medical doctor, or doctor of osteopathy who
is specialized in the practice of anesthesiology;
"Prosthodontics" is the dental specialty pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment planning,
rehabilitation and maintenance of the oral function, comfort, appearance and health of
patients with clinical conditions associated with missing or deficient teeth and/or oral and
maxillofacial tissues using biocompatible substitutes;
"Public health practice" means treatment or procedures in a public health setting which
shall be designated by a rule promulgated by the board to require direct, general, or no
supervision of a dental hygienist by a dentist; e
"Public health setting" means hospitals, schools, correctional facilities, jails, community
clinics, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, home health agencies, group homes, state
institutions under the Department of Health Facilities, public heualth facilities, homebound
settings, accredited dental hygiene education programs, and any other place designated by
the board by rule; t
"Qualified monitor" means an individual who by virtuea of credentialing and/or training is
qualified to check closely and document the status of a patient undergoing anesthesia and
observe utilized equipment; l
"Relative analgesia/minimal sedation" means an induced, controlled state of minimally
depressed consciousness, produced solely iby the inhalation of a combination of nitrous oxide
and oxygen or single oral premedicagtion without the addition of nitrous oxide and oxygen in
which the patient retains the ability to independently and continuously maintain an airway
and to respond purposefully to physical stimulation and to verbal command;
"Specialty" means the practice of a certain branch of dentistry;
"Subcommittee" means West Virginia Board of Dentistry Subcommittee on Anesthesia;
"TeledentistryV" means the use of telehealth by a provider who is located at a distant site to
facilitate the diagnosis, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of or
consultation with a patient who is located at an originating site. The term includes, without
limitation:
(1) Real-time interactions between a patient at an originating site and a provider at a distant
site;
(2) The asynchronous transmission of medical and dental information concerning a patient
from an originating site to a provider at a distant site;
(3) Interaction between a provider at a distant site who is providing dental services to a
patient at an originating site and another provider at the originating site; and
(4) Monitoring of a patient at an originating site by a provider at a distant site; and
"Work authorization" means a written order for dental laboratory services which has been
issued by a licensed dentist.

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