ADA Standards Program volunteers work together on documents that establish requirements for safe and effective dental products and technologies through a consensus-based process. The ADA has played a key role in the development of dental standards since 1928 and is an American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Developer. The Working Groups that develop ADA standards are a diverse group of expert volunteers representing dental practitioners, industry, government and academia. Professionals from all areas of interest are encouraged to participate. Involvement is open to anyone who would like to contribute their expertise.
The following draft standards are available for public review and comment until March 22, 2026. Please note that if any of the draft standards are adoptions of ISO standards, they must be requested as indicated below due to copyright restrictions.
If you have comments on any of the documents, download the corresponding comments template, add your comments and proposed changes, and send to standards@ada.org by the due date.
Proposed ANSI/ADA Standard No. 216, Dentistry – Endodontic Irrigants and Medicaments
Developed by ADA Standards Working Group 1.5: Endodontic Filling Materials
This document classifies endodontic irrigants and medicaments used temporarily (<30 days) in orthograde endodontic procedures. It specifies the requirements and test methods to be used to determine conformity.
This document also includes requirements for the information and instructions accompanying each package. Clause 7 specifies the marking, labeling, packaging, and instructions for use. The manufacturer is responsible for claiming that the contents of an unopened container are sterile. This document does not specify sterility requirements or test methods.
Download 216 (PDF)
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Proposed ANSI/ADA Standard No. 1084, Dentistry – Reference Core Data Set for Communication Among Dental and Other Health Information Systems
Developed by ADA Standards Working Group 11.9: Core Reference Data
This document provides the definitions of the elements that constitute the Reference Core Data Set (RCDS) of the common Electronic Dental Record (EDR), regardless of where the data set is stored. It provides a list of pertinent data fields from the EDR about the patient’s RCDS that health information system vendors can reference to internally map and extract information from their proprietary dental information system’s data schema.
Using the Health Level 7® (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) and Oral Dataset Interoperability Network (ODIN) standards, the vendor can then generate a machine-interpretable [Extensible Markup Language (XML) describing content] as well as human-readable [Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML)] EDR in order to achieve electronic information exchange between clinical information systems within a Health Information Exchange (HIE). The transmission between clinical information systems can be achieved using existing healthcare exchange standards including HIPAA, ODIN, USCDI, USCDI+, FHIR®, Direct, and TEFCA.
There are data sets that fall outside the scope of this document. For example, specific focus areas of healthcare (i.e., orthodontics, periodontics and other dental specialties) may have additional data sets that require definition and would be supplemental to this standard. While financial data may be linked to clinical data in an EDR, this standard does not include financial data sets as they may be managed separately within an EDR for privacy and security purposes.
Download 1084 (PDF)
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Proposed ANSI/ADA Standard No. 1120-3, Dentistry – Data Content Standard: Dental Plan Coverage Information
Developed by ADA Standards Working Group 11.15: Data Content Standardization to Support Mandated Administrative Transactions
This document establishes a uniform framework for defining dental plan coverage information to ensure clarity, consistency and interoperability across stakeholders. It specifies the data content required to comprehensively describe a dental insurance offering, including its covered benefits (product information), cost sharing structure (plan details) and administrative details (coverage area, contact information, etc.)
This document does not prescribe or endorse any specific implementation methodology, implementation guide, or technology standard for its adoption.
Download 1120-3 (PDF)
Download Comments Template (Word)