As a hygienist of 20 years, I support allowing properly trained and qualified dental assistants to scale within an appropriate scope of practice. I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but I am genuinely disappointed by the greed and manipulative behavior I’m seeing from many of my fellow hygienists.

I have watched greed slowly damage a profession that I truly love. Of course hygienists deserve to be respected and fairly compensated for our education, skills, and the important role we play in patient care. But there is a difference between advocating for fair wages and demanding wages that are becoming unsustainable for practices while simultaneously fighting solutions that could improve access to patient care.

At some point, we have to ask ourselves whether our priority is protecting patients or protecting our paychecks.

Patients are struggling to get appointments, practices are struggling to find hygienists, and ultimately patients are the ones who suffer. If dental assistants can receive the proper education, training, competency testing, and oversight to safely perform specific scaling procedures, I believe we should be open to it.

After 20 years in this profession, it is difficult for me to watch us become so focused on protecting our own financial interests that we lose sight of why we entered healthcare in the first place. We can protect patient safety, advocate for appropriate compensation, and still support responsible changes that increase access to care.

I love being a hygienist, and I love this profession. That is exactly why I believe we need to take a hard look at where we are headed and remember that taking care of our patients should always come first.