Finish the Year Strong: 5 Compliance Tasks Dental Offices Should Complete Before December 31st

Finish the Year Strong: 5 Compliance Tasks Dental Offices Should Complete Before December 31st

Seasons greetings from everyone at MyDentalCE! As the Christmas holiday hits full speed, most dental offices are juggling schedule changes, patient emergencies, and a healthy dose of candy cane-flavored chaos. However, the end of the year is also one of the best times to tighten up your compliance checklist. A few small updates now can save your practice from bigger headaches (and fines) once January arrives.

Here are five key tasks every dental office should complete before December 31st to ensure you head into the new year organized, safe, and fully compliant.

1. Review and Update Your OSHA Manual

OSHA updates don’t arrive often, but when they do, they matter.
Your office’s OSHA manual should reflect current:

  • Exposure control plans
  • Hazard communication policies
  • PPE protocols
  • Sterilization and disinfecting procedures

If staff onboarding, workflow, or equipment changed this year, your manual needs to match reality—not the version written in 2019 and forgotten on a shelf. A quick review now prevents surprises during an inspection later.

2. Complete Required Annual OSHA Training

Every dental team member needs documented annual OSHA training—yes, even the ones who swear they “did it last year.” The holiday season is an ideal moment for a short, focused refresher to reset expectations and clean up any compliance blind spots.

If you do nothing else before year-end, make sure your office has:

  • Documented Bloodborne Pathogens training
  • Proof of Hazard Communication training
  • Updated exposure incident procedures

It’s simple, fast, and protects every person in your practice.

3. Perform a HIPAA Security Risk Assessment

HIPAA requires an annual review of how your office protects patient information. This isn’t just about paperwork—it’s about real-world workflow.

Before the year wraps up, take a few minutes to look at:

  • Access controls
  • Password policies
  • How patient forms are stored
  • How devices are secured
  • Whether encrypted backups are actually running

You don’t need a government-level audit; you just need a realistic snapshot of how your team handles PHI day to day.

4. Audit Your Safety Equipment and Logs

Even the most organized offices end up with a few year-end mysteries—expired eyewash solutions, phantom sterilization logs, missing SDS sheets, or an eyewash station that hasn’t been flushed since spring.

A quick equipment and log audit should include:

  • Sterilizer logs
  • Spore test records
  • Eyewash station flushing log
  • SDS sheets
  • Sharps container status
  • Fire extinguisher inspections

Most of this takes minutes and makes a huge difference during an unexpected inspection.

5. Confirm CE Credits and Licensure Requirements

Many states require CE hours to be completed before December 31st or before license renewal. With the year wrapping up, now is the moment to double-check that your team has:

  • Completed required CE
  • Met state-specific mandates
  • Stored CE certificates in one place
  • Completed any CPR renewal deadlines

Holiday downtime is perfect for finishing CE, especially courses your team can take with coffee in hand and zero stress.

Set your clinic up for success in 2026. A well-organized office ends the year with clarity rather than scrambling, and a team that stays up-to-date on safety and compliance walks into January confident and protected.

If your practice could benefit from an easy, on-demand way to finish your year-end training, MyDentalCE.com offers quick, practical CE courses designed for busy dental teams.

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