I have first hand experience in Dental Assistants doing supragingival scaling in Germany with their Oral Prophylaxis Dental Assistants. In Germany, the dentists do the deep quad scaling for those patients who need periodontal therapy but periodontal disease is still rampant in Germany. Why?  Beacause most of the public are treated by these OP's who can only scale to sulcus depth and do not  get referred to DDS for treatment evaluation for early onset periodontal disease. My great concern for USA dental assistants to scale Class I patients is the slippery slope effect.  Who is the one determining classification - the front desk, the dental assistant, the dentist? And if, in fact, this Class I turns out to have some slight sub calculus with bleeding on lower anteriors is this in the job description with high consideration for  the safety to the public? What I have seen in Germany is not a pretty sight.  The patient assumes that they have had a completely clean mouth when in fact it is not  because the oral disease process lurks under neath the gingiva. For the safety and complete oral health of the public please reconsider this new advancement in the scope of practice for Dental Assistants. I am also a Certified Dental Assistant - the job description and Scope of Practice is what I sought when I went to school - 4 handed dentistry as a team member.  When I thought I would like to increase my scope of practice; I went to dental hygiene school.  These clear roles have served us well and the European model is struggling to insert prevention into their paradigm.  Because we have a active and pro-prevention team in the USA our rate of oral disease is mush less than most other countries.  Please keep the same oral health team concept in place.