I strongly oppose any effort by the Board of Dentistry to allow an "expanded duty dental assistant" to perform supragingival scaling. In order to remove supragingival calculus  you must go subgingivally beneath the deposit with a scaller or currette. It is impossible for the "expanded duty dental assistant" to stay above the gumline in order to properly remove supragingival calculus! By only removing supragingival calculus and leaving subgingival calculus the patient is at risk for a periodontal abscess and periodontal disease. If this regulation is passed as stated the Board of Dentistry will be placing the public at risk for periodontal disease which is linked to Heart Disease, Stroke, Diabetes, and preterm low birthweight babies.

I started working in the dental field as a dental assistant at 18 years of age. The dentist trained me on the job as a dental assistant. I than went on to ODU and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene. After four  years of formal training, I still was not allowed to scale until I passed my National Dental Hygiene Board Exam, and Dental Hygiene Clinical Examination. I cannot imagine being trained on the job how to scale. It would be impossible. When I first started dental hygiene school  I did not even know what calculus looked like, much less how to use a scaler to remove it. In clinic we first had to learn how to use each instument on a plastic set of teeth. Once that was mastered than we started practicing on each other. The final step in our training was practicing on the public. The public which knew we were a dental hygiene school and paid lower fees to help us with our practice. I could not imagine deceiving patients in our public practices with "expanded duty dental assistants". The patients are paying and expecting to receive high quality care. They have no idea they are receiving substandard care which in turn could harm their overall health. I cannot believe dentist knowing this would want to physically harm their patients. Please consider all the patients you could be harming if not killing if this regulation is passed.

Sincerely

Ruth Hughes, RDH