I am currently a Dental Hygiene student at ETSU.  I strongly believe that dental assistants should not be able to scale.  Like I said I am currently a student at ETSU and we recieve thorough formal training on scaling teeth.  Scaling requires complete knowledge of the periodontia encluding all of the surrounding structures.  Those structures can be destroyed if a clinician is improperly trained and dental assistants do not recieve formal thorough training.  If dental assistants are allowed to scale teeth it will detriment patient's oral health and the goal of all dental professions which is to better the oral health of the people will be harder to reach.  The goal will be harder to reach if our own dental professionals (dental assistants) are destroying the periodontal health of patients because they are not educated like Dental Hygienists are educated.