Proposing a dental assistant II with limited educational requirements is a poor excuse for adding to the perceived manpower shortage in your state.  This infers that some patients will be treated by less qualified 'professionals' simply because they live where there are fewer dental hygienists.  This perceived shortage should be studied before any action is taken.  One might conclude that there is a shortage of dentists in these same areas.  This 'shortage' could be reduced, if it in fact exists, by allowing registered dental hygienists to perform their legal tasks without the supervision of a dentist.  These alternative practice hygienists would have their own businesses, possibly in a mobile van as in California where the under served are treated by licensed dental hygienists who have taken proper training for this type of service.  This way, a registered dental hygienist, who has trained for many years already, will be delivering safe treatment to the under served citizens in these areas of your state. 

If any dental assistant can take a short course to legally scale supragingivally, what good does that do for the periodontal disease of patients since periodontal disease is a subgingival disease?  Supragingival scaling is not the important task we dental hygienists perform.  Subgingival scaling is where the disease lives.  In fact, supragingival scaling is a cosmetic procedure with very little merritt in the control of periodontal diseases.  

Another issue I have with this proposal is that it states that supragingival scaling is reversible.  It is not reversible at all.  In fact, improper scaling results in large amounts of  tooth substance removal.  To properly scale teeth takes many years of technical training.  Reducing the educational requirements of any health care professional is a sad situation for your state.  

I highly recommend the Board look into California's Registered Dental Hygienist Alternative Practice.  These hygienists have taken advanced training, at their own expense, from the University of the Pacific and Loma Linda University.    

Sincerely,

Renee Marchant-Turner, RDH 

Santa Rosa, CA