I oppose ANY and ALL proposed scaling duties to be done by DAII. Although, I am still in school as a graduating senior, I could not imagine an assistant replacing our duties to scale. Who will screen these class 1 patients? A class 1 is not always a class 1. Even if the patient has been screened as a class 1, the classification may change while exploring the entire mouth; will the assistant learn how to explore like the hygienist can? A class 1 patient may also have severe gingivitis, or other complications going on in their mouths, the assistant is not trained like the hygienist is, and does not have the education, learning tools, or experience to scale. Even if these patients are true class 1's, will the assistant master instrumentation? Learning to scale and master instrumentation is not done overnight. I am not degrading assistants or their jobs, they are wonderful and are useful to dental practice, but I do not feel like they have the knowledge behind dental hygiene to scale patients. What if the patient asks them how calculus is formed, or even what plaque is, will they know, or know how to explain this information? Also, the patient will get confused by this change. All the sudden the assistant they know as being on the other side of the dental office is now on the treatment side with the hygienist. They will probably feel neglected because most patients, and myself are used to the same hygienist overtime. Please consider the hard work and dedication hygienists give for their patients on this matter, and NOT allow assistants to scale.

Thank you,

Kelly Rand