First off I would encourage all commentators to read the Statute 54.1-2729.01 Practice of dental assistants.  Paragraph B says a person who has met the educational and training requirements prescribed by the Board, who holds a certification from a credentialing organization recognized by the ADA, and has met any other qualifications for registration as prescribed in regulations promulgated by the Board may practice as a dental assistant II.

The Law says that the dental assistant II must hold a certification from a credentialing organization recognized by the ADA.  Right now, to my knowledge, the only such organization is DANB.  Please visit danb.org and click on Exams to see what the pre-requisites are to sit for the DANB Exam.  In short, you have to graduate from an ADA accredited program, or be a high school graduate AND a minimum of 3,500 hours work experience as a dental assistant accrued over a continuous period of not less than 24 months or more than 48 months. Then you have to pay $300.00 to sit for a 4-hour, 320 question test.  Now, the Board can set the educational and training requirements, BUT, by law the dental assistant II MUST be certified.

The only reason I mention all this is because there is a misconception with many dentist who think they can just take their dental assistant and send them to a weekend course and then they can scale teeth.  Not so.  Plus, a CDA will command 18.00 to 20.00 per hour (according to DANB).  If a dentist does have a dental assistant II scale and polish Type I perio patients, will he charge less?  Don't count on it.  And this will not increase access to care.  Those people who lack access to care are not Type I perio patients.  The only thing it WILL do is give third party payers a reason to lower re-imbursement for adult prophys.  Dental assistants should not be providing adult perio services. That is and should be the job of the RDH.  What we really need is more 2-year hygiene programs to get more hygienists into the marketplace.