The Dawson Academy Lab Association (DALA) is a group of independent (from the Academy) labs that practice the Dawson Concept of Complete Dentistry® and work to facilitate the relationship between like-minded Dawson trained dentists and laboratory technicians.
The Mission of the Dawson Academy Lab Association is to connect Dawson trained dentists with Dawson trained lab technicians so together they can provide excellent patient care and the highest quality dentistry based on The Concept of Complete Dentistry® as taught by The Dawson Academy.
One of the greatest challenges facing dentists learning to practice the Dawson Concept of Complete Dentistry® is finding lab technicians with the necessary knowledge and skills to support the Academy’s functional occlusion principles.
Through the DALA, Dawson trained dentists are able to find labs with technicians who have the knowledge and skills needed to support them as they strive to practice Complete Dentistry®.
One of the greatest and most costly challenges facing dental labs today is obtaining complete, accurate records and lab scripts in order to produce high quality, predictable restorations. When labs are forced to guess about contours, edges, occlusions, etc., the resulting restorations often need to be redone, placing a financial strain on the lab as well as on the dentist-technician-lab relationship.
Working with Dawson-trained dentists increases the likelihood of success for the lab and the dentist, as together they strive for a predictable, stable, long-lasting, esthetic result for the patient.
The following are the different member types within in Dawson Academy Laboratory Association.
Member designation is for those technicians who have completed a minimum of one course at The Dawson Academy.
Scholar designation is for those technicians who have completed the laboratory technician core curriculum of The Dawson Academy.
The Dawson Academy Credentialed Technician designation is awarded to those technicians who have achieved Scholar status and demonstrated competency through a written exam, successful case presentation, written recommendations from Dawson trained dentists, and an oral review.
The Dawson Academy Qualified Lab designation identifies labs that have a state of the art facility, outstanding quality of products and service (as critiqued by their customers), fosters an environment of learning & growth of employees, and has full time employment of a Dawson Credentialed Lab Technician in good standing.
Additionally, in order to achieve Qualified Lab designation, labs must prove competency through various letters of recommendation, submissions, and surveys.
Monday – Friday:
9:00 am – 4:00 pm EST
Phone:
727.823.7047
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry.
Concerns or complaints about a CE provider may be directed to the provider or to the Commission for Continuing Education Provider Recognition at ADA.org/CERP.