To the State of Virginia,

I just wanted to share my concerns about your upcoming hearings on the possibility of allowing dental assistants the legal responsibility to scale teeth.  I spent 3 years taking pre-requisites for admittance to dental hygiene school, and then another 2 years in school before passing my National Boards (an 8 hour test pertaining to the science of dental hygiene and the clinical skills involved ) and then passing my State Boards, which involves finding an appropriate patient and then passing a clinical exam before I received my license to practice dental hygiene.   There is no way that all of the science (college level chemistry, anatomy, physiology and microbiolgy) and clinical skills can be taught within the confines of dental assisting school, nor should they be.  If this measure passes it would show a reckless disregard to patients health.  Patients will be placed in jeopardy without even knowing it.   There is so much more that goes into "cleaning" teeth than simply removing plaque and calculus.  I consider myself a health care provider as well, and at the current billing rates of a prophy, I think patients can reasonably expect to be seen by a bonafide health care provider.  Regulatory agencies such as yourself are the only ones who can prevent this from happening. 

Rebecca Collins, RDH

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