I think we should be striving to improve the quality of education and training our dental professionals, well all healthcare providers, obtain in order to work on a patient.  If lack of opportunities is the problem, then add the opportunities, don't lower the bar for everyone.  That's not far to those who have gone through the schooling, and it certainly isn't fair to the patients who trust that the dental professional placing their fillings is highly trained.  We make dentists, people who have been practicing for years, from other countries go through our dental schools.  We do this so we know that they are fully trained because the training isn't uniform overseas.  Why view the dental assistants, especially the expanded functions ones, any different?  If they are placing fillings or cementing crowns--work that licensed dentists (who have not only earned a four year undergraduate degree but also spend four plus years in dental school) do--shouldn't there be some standard, uniform training from accredited sources for those assistants too?  I think so.