Alberta dentist lookup: CDSA register versus the ADA.

The split behind the confusion

The Alberta Dental Association explains the history on its About page. In December 2020 the Government of Alberta passed a bill amending the Health Professions Act that required all regulatory health colleges, including the former Alberta Dental Association and College (now operating as the College of Dental Surgeons of Alberta), to discontinue their association functions. The newly independent Alberta Dental Association launched in January 2023. If you remember the older name, or an abbreviation such as ADA&C, you were using a body that has since been divided in two.

The ADA also explains the difference in plain terms. A professional association promotes and advocates for the profession and is led by and for its members. A regulatory college exists to protect the public interest. For a patient the practical consequence is simple: a complaint, a licensing check or a question about whether someone is allowed to practise goes to the College, not the association.

What the ADA says about complaints

The ADA’s page on concerns about a dentist is direct. It encourages people to try to resolve a concern with the dentist first, says the College of Dental Surgeons of Alberta provides a fair process to resolve complaints under the Health Professions Act, and states that the Association is not involved in the regulation of the profession and does not accept complaints about dentists. That sentence alone settles most “which website” confusion.

The practice permit number

The College’s registration FAQ describes how a new registrant is issued a practice permit number: once an application is approved, the applicant attends an online orientation and registration session and receives the practice permit number, with registration effective the following day. The annual practice permit fee is a full annual fee, pro-rated after 1 July, and malpractice insurance is included as part of it. So when a dentist quotes a “permit number” or “registration number”, it is tied to an annual practice permit that is renewed, not a once-and-forever licence. The FAQ does not publish a digit pattern, so this page does not guess one.

Persons prohibited from practising

The College keeps a page headed Persons Prohibited from Practising Dentistry. It says the individuals listed are not registered by the CDSA, are not entitled to practise dentistry in Alberta or to hold themselves out as qualified, and are prohibited by an order of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. If a name you are checking is on that page, the answer is final. If it is on neither the register nor the page, ask the clinic for the exact legal name and permit number.

A worked example (hypothetical)

A family in Red Deer is choosing between two clinics. One website carries the ADA logo and the other says only “registered with the CDSA”. This describes no real clinic.

First, notice that an ADA logo means the dentist belongs to the voluntary association, which is not the same as being registered to practise. Second, open the Dentist Directory and search for each named dentist. Third, if one cannot be found, ask the clinic for the full legal name and practice permit number, and check the Persons Prohibited page. Finally, if the clinic says “ask the ADA to confirm”, remember the Association says it does not regulate and cannot take complaints, so go back to the College.

What this page does not cover

• It does not search the register or store what you type; there is no form on this page.
• It does not describe the register’s search fields, which could not be read from the page source.
• It does not cover dental hygienists or other dental professionals in Alberta, who have their own regulators.
• It does not state a permit-number format, which the College does not publish.
• It does not recommend a clinic or compare fees; the ADA publishes a fee guide for that.