I strongly disagree with allowing dental assistants to scale patients, regardless of the their level of periodontal disease. Dental hygienists undergo an extensive amount of training to prepare them to treat any type of patient. An assistant is responsible for several areas of the office, while montioring periodontal disease and giving oral hygiene instructions is one of the hygienist's main focus. I believe it is doing the patients a great disservice to lower the amount of rigorous training expected of a healthcare provider. I greatly respect dental assistants, and I know that a practice would not be able to run without them, but treating periodontitis should not be among an assistant's responsibilities. There is a great deal of knowledge that must be obtained before one is able to fully understand the effects of scaling, and what kind of conditions it may induce. Upon graduation, I intend to treat each patient as if it were my own husband, or mother, and I know I would not feel comfortable allowing my family, or any of my patients to be treated with less than the absolute best training possible. Please reconsider this decision.