November 10, 2008

Dear esteemed members of the board:

Access to health care is a major concern to all Americans. One aspect of access that is sometimes overlooked is the lack of suufficient medical professionals in certain fields and locations. For example, the lack of dental professionals in Alaska is frequently among the headlines in our professional dental journals. My dental colleagues here in Virginia have often expressed their concern about the shortage of dental hygenists. I am writing to encourage you to include important  duties of a particular dental assistant classification; duties that I believe will improve our profession's ability to deliver quality dental care.

It has come to my attention that the Virginia Board of Dentistry has an opportunity to be proactive in the area of access to care through the creation of the expanded duty Dental Assistant II classification. I believe the various duties of the DA II should include supra-gingival scaling. Enabling DA II professionals to perform this function would be an ecxcellent offense against rising health care costs and it would help to alleviate any shortage of trained dental professionals.

Of course, protecting the health of Virginians is the board's primary concern. Safety plays a key role in that mission and an important safety consideration is whether a dental procedure is reversible. In contrast with root planning, for example, which is not reversible, supra-gingival scaling is a procedure that a Dental Assistant II could perform safely, in my opinion.

I am a practicing orthodontist in the Hampton Roads region. The removal of supra-gingival orthodontic cement by an orthodontic assistant has been a standard practice for generations. My assistants have been doing this without incident throughout my career. Furthermore, the United States military utilizes dental cleaning technicians for children and adults without periodontal disease. I suggest that the board examine their protocols.

I trust you will recieve many letters in favor of including supra-gingival scaling to the duties of the Dental Assistant II position. I believe that doing so will safely and efficiently increase the access to dental care throughout Virginia.

Yours for better dental health, I am

Sincerely yours,

Catherine Oden Fulton, DDS