As a patient and former EMT, I find this troubling. Dental hygienists spend years learning periodontal disease, anatomy, instrumentation and patient care, etc. Now a dental assistant can use specific and specialty tools after completing the requirements established by the legislature? Absurd new reality.

Would we allow an EMT to perform a medical procedure normally performed by a licensed nurse or physician simply because the EMT completed additional training by a doctor and a doctor agreed to supervise? I don’t think patients would find that reassuring.

Supervision does not replace education. Twenty supervised procedures do not make two professions equivalent.

What concerns me even more is that dental assistants are not licensed by the Board in the same way dentists and hygienists are. If the legislature is going to authorize unlicensed personnel to perform procedures previously associated with licensed professionals, then patients deserve very clear protections. Please make sure there is some form of documentation that requires notifying the patient and getting their consent!

The Board didn’t create this law, but it is now stuck trying to make it safe. A one-line addition to the guidance document is not enough. Please take the time to carefully plan this document out to protect patients!