Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) representatives recently championed three proposed submissions to the profession’s Code on Dental Procedures and Nomenclature (CDT Code) during the American Dental Association’s (ADA) Code Maintenance Committee (CMC) meeting held on March 7, 2025. AGD leaders Ralph A. Cooley, DDS, FAGD, a general dentist from Texas, and Arlene O’Brien, DMD, FAGD, a general dentist from New Jersey, provided input and counsel on requested changes to the CDT Code.
The following new CDT Codes, recommended by AGD, were approved during the meeting and will be available for use beginning Jan. 1, 2026:
Descriptor: This procedure does not include any adjustments.
These additions to the CDT Code reflect AGD’s ongoing commitment to advocating for general dentists and improving the accuracy of dental documentation. The approval process involved submitting written applications for each proposed code, in-depth discussions with representatives of organized dentistry, comments from interested observers, and deliberation by voting members of the CMC. In 2025, the CMC considered more than 90 codes.
“Although dentists use these codes every day in the practice, they may not realize how they are defined or how they come about,” said Cooley. “The CMC is the organization that makes that happen, and by having a seat at the table, AGD is able to advocate for the general dentist on matters that affect how they practice every day.”
O’Brien added, “AGD members can look forward to new codes about duplication of complete dentures, including one for maxillary and one for mandibular, as well as another code for cleaning and inspection of an occlusal guard, which are all procedures that general dentists do on a daily basis.”
The three CDT Code suggestions championed by AGD were developed after the AGD’s Dental Practice Council’s 2023-24 Subcommittee on the Comprehensive Review of the CDT Code conducted an extensive review of the 2024 CDT Code. Its analysis of that information resulted in the identification of several areas in which AGD members — and other dentists — would benefit by having additional codes available to record patient treatment.
The review of these new CDT Codes is part of AGD’s broader efforts to keep pace with the evolving field of dentistry and meet the needs of practitioners in a dynamic healthcare environment.
For more information about AGD’s role in the CDT Code maintenance process or to learn more about AGD membership, please visit www.agd.org.
