As a current dental hygiene student, I strongly oppose the proposal of dental assistants to be allowed to scale and polish periodontal Type I patients under direct supervision of the dentist. My main concern with this proposal is the safety of our loyal patients. I viewed many of the post on this public forum, and am thankful that patients included their opinions in opposition. I feel if that this idea was proposed due to the lack of dental hygientist in some areas. Instead of putting our patients in jeopardy, I believe an increase in the number of dental hygienists would be more appropriate. As a future RDH, I think an extremely important part of my job is to educate my patients on oral health. We cannot go home with our patients to clean their teeth everyday, therefore we must educate them on how to maintain optimal oral heath. Many people don't realize how extremely important their oral health is in relation to their overall health. Assistants that are only taught to scale and polish will not be able to properly educate patients as the RDH does on a daily basis. Bringing this proposal to reality will only put our patients at risk. I think those who support this proposal need to seriously consider the possible damaging outcomes that could come of this decision.