Introduction and General Information

The Indian Dental Association (IDA), a premier dental professional organization, committed to dental excellence, aims at optimal national oral health for all by 2020. IDA being the voice of the professionals, has taken upon itself the responsibility to instill care, values and skills among its members. We maintain our position as the pre- eminent leaders by developing policies, clinic practice guidelines, standards and resource section to advance and promote patient safety, quality, value and measurement of performance for optimal dental healthcare through peer-based accreditation processes.

Purpose

These standards, guidelines, toolkit and policies are intended to assist dental practitioners who are seeking accreditation (or re-accreditation) of their dental clinics with the Indian Dental Association (IDA).

Vision & Mission

IDA's Accreditation Committee visualizes standardization of oral health care for delivery of superior,current and internationally accepted treatment modalities; all the while safeguarding the rights of both patients and doctors aimed to provide optimal oral health care.The accreditation of dental practice will provide benchmarks for excellence and expertise.

Accreditation of dental practice advocates policies, guidelines and programmes that promote optimal oral health. Accreditation of dental practice will ensure the following:

• Universal standardisation of dental health care quality across the country.
• Form guidelines for improving the existing dental healthcare system.
• Ensure that patients receive the highest quality of oral health care.
• To ensure patient safety.

Goals

Accreditation will help monitor and improve the performance of the dental practice and communicate the importance of patient experience and quality management to all dentists. This will promote the patient's confidence in dental professionals and improve patient protection. Accreditation of practice will help set standards of dental practice and conduct.

The primary goal is to protect the public from harm and to improve the quality of health service provision. Specific goals include the following:

• Formulate mandatory guidelines that dental clinics must follow.
• Conduct unbiased individual peer reviewed assessment of functioning of all dental clinics.
• Establish benchmarks for dental health care delivery.
• Continually upgrade the dental clinics by regular assessment of existing norms.

The principal purpose of accreditation is to protect the health and safety of the public by ensuring that oral healthcare practitioners remain fit and competent to practice within a defined scope of practice throughout their working lives.