I have been in the Dental field for almost 20 years now.  I started out as a registered Dental Assistant for 5 of those early  years.   I later went to Old Dominion University for my bachelors in Dental Hygiene.  Then became an instructor of Dental Hygiene.  I would say, after coming out of dental assisting school I  would not   been anywhere close to the level of skill it takes to properly adapt a carbon steel instrument in the correct positions as to not cause any tissue or enamel damage.   Dental Hygienist have spent at the time of graduation, two to three years learning nothing but hands-on techniques in a controlled enviroment with instructors helping every step of the way.  You are now saying that in a busy dental practice that a doctor would have time to not only see all thier patients, check hygiene patients, and run a full staff . They would also have time to supervise and teach assistants to do scaling. I find this to be a little be difficult to believe. I hope  that patients are not hurt and that there is some good malpactrice insurance in place. When patients find out that they are being treated by unlicensed indiviuals I feel the general public will be less than pleased.  I would not be happy to be seen by a medical doctors assistant because I just had a cough instead of the licensed nurse.....would you?