As a dental practitioner of fifty years, periodontist, and dental school educator, I oppose any legislation or regulation that allows any unlicensed individual to practice dentistry or dental hygiene.

Based upon my long standing experience with dental education and practice,  I do not believe the dental graduate has the expertise to function as an educator in training auxiliaries or manage a program of certification.  

To assume that the dentist can train, educate, and certify dental assistants while maintaining an active, patient work load is not realistic nor does this model advance access to quality care, but instead places both the practitioners and patients at risk.

Historically, dentistry has opposed denturists due to their lack of formal training, and now VDA, is promoting unlicensed, unregulated individuals to provide incomplete dental hygiene care of supragingival scaling.   Fragmented care by an inadequately trained, unregulated personnel is NOT the ethical solution to advancing the public's access to care.