I strongly oppose expansion of any dental assisting duties to include scaling.  My primary concern is that this change would compromise  the current standard of care.  To obtain my dental hygiene license, I completed an accredited dental hygiene program and several board examinations to illustrate competency of multiple skills.  My education included anatomy, physiology, extensive study of periodontal disease, and hours of hands-on instruction in instrumentation.  DA II training would fall extremely short of these standards.

Furthermore, a class I perio patient has gingivitis, which is an early stage of periodontal disease.  Without proper treatment and patient education, this disease process could easily progress to more advanced stages of periodontitis.  Research suggests numerous systemic links to periodontal disease.  Therefore, patients with gingivitis are not just "easy" patients that a dental assistant can simply scale and polish.  These patients deserve the treatment and education necessary to reverse their disease process and promote overall better health.