I would love to put my name on this, but I hope one can understand why I didn’t. 

I have been a Dental Hygienist for 13 years and I can confidently say that I have seen my fair share. I have seen excellent dentist who understands basic standard of care and some who will walk by eyes closed. I have worked corporate as well as in private sector. 

I am currently on my third job and unfortunately this job is far more neglected. I was told by our dental assistant that his previous dentist taught him how to use cavitron (ultrasonic scaler) on patients and he can ‘easily’ do what a Hygienist does. When I started at this practice, I noticed majority of the patients hadn’t been perio charted average of 3-5 yrs and the dentist was doing all the Prophy’s in other words everybody was getting a 10 minute prophy as all recall appointments were being schedule for 20 mins. There were no scaling and root plannings or periodontal maintenances!! That is negligence! It is PATIENT NEGLECT. 

We all know how much periodontal disease can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc. Though I gave it a month and see what I can do to turn things around. Office has been open to treating ALL of these ‘NEW’ periodontal cases as it brings more $$$ to the office but we finally started to plateau. I have had the most DIFFICULT conversations with these patients as how they got from healthy 6 month recalls to PERIODONTAL DISEASE. 

This is just a very short 4 years self-study I got to experience on my own, but I CAN’T imagine this is being ALLOWED in Virginia. I can assure there are many other practices that are not following rules and assistants are being FORCED by dentist to ‘clean teeth’.  

This is not a correct way of addressing hygiene shortage. After this change  - hygienist are compelled to see only periodontally compromised patients and because there will be no mixture of procedures – BURN OUT will happen! 

SOLUTION - have more accredited programs with more than 20-30 students per class. Make it affordable to access education. Make mandatory to have basic hygienists needs met (medical insurance, paid sick leave, RESPECT). Insurance companies’ reimbursement needs to increase. 

Recently in our office meeting my dentist told me that I need to reduce time for Periodontal Maintenance patients as I am only bringing in $55-65 that appointment. He said he is basically “paying me” to see the patient.  Is the dentist not paying his assistant or front desk??? if anything, patients WANT to come in for cleanings and therefore a dentist gets to do the exams to diagnose further and that is HOW a practice is run. Practices don’t run on emergency patients or limited exams. Hygiene is a BACK BONE of any practice. It keeps the lights on and it is what keeps the patients coming back! 

I haven’t even mentioned the education and years of schooling that goes into this, licensing exam! A basic Dental assistant in state of VA DO NOT HAVE TO LICENSEND OR CERTIFIED!! Therefore, your STARBUCKS barista can be trained to cleaning teeth. It is absurd!!! 

DA SCALING is not only UNETHICAL, it is also SUPERVISED NEGLECT.