Delineation of Privileges

Board takeaway

• A hospital privilege request must show that your training and experience support the procedures you want to perform.
• AAPD’s form describes the breadth of pediatric dentistry; the institution grants individual privileges after credentialing.
• Neither inclusion on the form nor board certification alone authorizes every listed procedure.

Qualifications and patient scope

• Review DDS/DMD or equivalent education, completion of a CODA-accredited pediatric dentistry residency, and experience demonstrating pediatric dentistry competence.
• ABPD certification may be held; the form does not make certification an absolute prerequisite.
• Scope includes preventive and therapeutic care from infancy through adolescence. Adults with physical, developmental, mental, sensory, behavioral, cognitive, or emotional impairments requiring specialized care also may receive treatment.

Core privilege categories

• Admissions/consultations: inpatient and outpatient services in wards, operating/procedure rooms, and emergency departments.
• Diagnosis/oral medicine: examination, imaging, lesions/anomalies, TMD diagnosis, pulp testing, uncomplicated biopsy and adjunctive tests, models, caries/periodontal risk assessment, and abuse/neglect assessment and documentation.
• Prevention: prophylaxis, dietary/injury counseling, sealants, fluoride, silver diamine fluoride, guards, anticipatory guidance, and tobacco/substance cessation counseling.
• Restoration/rehabilitation: all dentitions; fixed/removable prostheses, cleft/maxillofacial/speech prostheses, bleaching, microabrasion, and esthetic care.
• Developing dentition: habits, space maintenance/regaining, crossbites/functional shifts, headgear, functional/fixed appliances, infant orthopedics, orthodontics with orthognathic surgery, nonsurgical TMD care, and occlusal adjustment.
• Trauma/emergencies: dental fractures/displacement, pulpal/periodontal/alveolar and soft-tissue injuries, maxillofacial infections, and chemical/thermal oral injuries.
• Periodontics: probing, curettage, scaling/root planing, local/systemic drug therapy, splinting, frenal procedures including ankyloglossia correction, gingival surgery/grafts.
• Endodontics: vital/nonvital pulp therapies, lesion sterilization/tissue repair, root filling, revascularization, apexification/apexogenesis, apicoectomy, and periradicular management.
• Anesthesia/pain: local anesthesia, nitrous oxide/oxygen, minimal through deep sedation, and systemic analgesic therapy.
• Oral surgery: extractions, impacted/unerupted tooth exposure/removal, pericoronitis care, implants, tooth transplantation, biopsy, drainage, and minor cyst/foreign-body removal.

Practical documentation

Organize the request around education, residency training, relevant experience, any board certification, and the specific privileges sought. Use the additional/special-procedure field for procedures such as laser surgery and the qualifications supporting them.

After appointment, the operative question is whether the hospital has approved that procedure for that practitioner. See Hospital staff membership for continuing duties and institutional rules.

Common board traps

Answer aloud

How would you prepare a hospital privilege request?

Match each requested privilege to documented education, accredited pediatric training, and relevant experience.

• Include any board certification; the form does not make it an absolute prerequisite.
• Specify core privileges and qualifications for additional/special procedures.
• The hospital evaluates competence and grants privileges for the actual services proposed.

Does listing a procedure on the AAPD privilege form authorize you to perform it?

No. Confirm that the institution has granted that practitioner the specific privilege.

• The form describes specialty scope; it is not an individual authorization.
• Procedure inclusion also does not establish clinical indications, sedation monitoring, or rescue requirements.