I am against this idea as it undermines and devalues the profession of dental hygiene.  I used to be a dental assistant before becoming a hygieniest.  A dentist made a comment in this forum about assistants already scaling tenacious cement from crowns after they were placed, and this being harder to do then scaling calculous from teeth. From my experience the cement comes off in huge pieces and is frequently missed from the interpoximal areas, causing the patient lots of problems if this situation is left unnoticed.  Usually the dentist doesn't check the assistants work, so it's not caught till BW's are taken by the hygienist at the patients next recall appointment and then it's left to her (or him) to attempt to take off the rock hard cement that is causing severe gum problems and sensetivity to the patient.  Cement scaling is not the same as scaling calulus from teeth, which is fine work and takes time to properly learn.

Hygienists have worked too long to get to where we are now to take 10 giant steps back now.  Please consider this when you make your decision. 

Jane Jones, RDH