Ask your patients.  Try telling them that an assistant will be scaling their teeth versus a registered dental hygienst.  They could be missing out on important periodontal hygiene instruction if there are issues. Two years of a hygienists educational experience teaches them the proper way to use certain instrumetns, scale and educate patients.  Obviously, a dentist can pay an assistant much less than a hygienist. In the long run is your patients peiodontal health worth the risk?  I feel the same about a assistant doing a hygienists job, as I do a hygienist being briefly trained to do dentistry. As well as all other registered dental hygienists, our licenses were earned!