I have been a hygienist for 22 years and an RDH educator for one year. I strongly oppose the idea of assistant scaling. Assistants are a very important part of the dental team but they will not be properly taught to scale. To compound this problem, other important parts of the appointment will be sacrificed. We, as registered dental hygienists, have a high standard of care that will be seriously lowered if assistants are allowed to scale. The patient will be the loser.