Action | Registration and practice of dental assistants |
Stage | NOIRA |
Comment Period | Ended on 11/12/2008 |
As a recipient of dental care in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I strongly oppose the reduction of dental standards proposed by this measure. While many occupations utilitze on-the-job-training, I do not believe the scaling of my teeth should be one of them. The consequent health hazards to me personally are too great. I am a firm believer that teeth and the gum line are of utmost concern for routine preventive care. Bacteria, infection, disease, etc. here rapidly lead to life-threatening conditions. I so believe this, I just paid an astronomical amount of money to have a decayed tooth removed from my elder horse's mouth. He is too valuable to (just) me to risk infection in his bloodstream, jawbone, etc. Not for one nano-second do I believe the dental assistants will be properly trained by the dentists. This is yet another example of grabbing money over integrity. And over my health. I have had the misfortune of suffering through the dentist cleaning my teeth when the hygienist was out. Not on your life do I believe dental assistants will be properly trained. Nor on mine.