If dentists need more hygienists- pay for some of your assistants to go to a Proper Hygiene school! There are enough dentists out there already who "on the sly" let their assistants "scale" teeth & bill for prophy's...It's one of the reasons there's so much undiagnosed perio in America! Not to mention the dentists who scale their patients teeth themselves! Unbelievable to me when my  new patients are shocked to see/feel the probe, comment about how thorough I am by exploring /scaling around every tooth- even if only a light stroke with the ultrasonic scaler. Thorough maybe- but -I inform them - that's what they should experience at every hygiene appointment wherever they go! Manyof them remark that dentist or otherwise- only picked for about 5 minutes just in the lower anterior teeth on the tongue side- polished , xrayed when needed - then sent them on their merry way! Sometimes they say- "I'd get home & feel rough spots , or look in the mirror & see buildup on the outsides or stains in between the teeth that they never took the time to remove!" I could tell many stories of inadequate, inproper care!  These  stories will only become the norm if you rush someone thru this proposed "scaling training"! Do you know how many times I remove cement from around  crowns???  Some speak of how assistants already remove cement- so they should be able to scale simple calculus deposits as well- this is not comparing apples to apples!! The assistant knows that the cement should only be on the teeth that were treated...although it frequently finds it's way up under gums on neighboring teeth. I submit to you that a huge % of patients (even children who dentists frequently  think are fine for assistants to just polish & send on their way)have tartar & periodontal concerns on  many localized  teeth that is just not detected because of time constraints,  lack of experience(dentists used to get about an hour long lecture of how to scale teeth-in the late '80's -has it gone up -since then?), or just lack of concern!  Let this sort of neglect  be legalized & see what a can of legal worms you'll open!!!

I only hope that the powers that be will do what they can to to preserve what  little quality of care  we have left in this country!!! I often feel pride about my career in dental hygiene/dentistry  b/c I feel it's one of the last areas-that is holding on to it's integrity of patient  care- Comments from so many professsionals -even on this list make me question this!!!

I feel sooooo fortunate to work in a practice where my expertise , training &  clinical experience (since 1990) is ABSOLUTELY  & Completely valued by all 4 dentists in the practice! They frequently comment on our expertise & thoroughness to our patients even!

I wish THERE WERE MORE dental professionals with like minds as them!!!