According to the VABOD, a dental assistant I in Virginia is not required to have ANY formal training other than Radiology Certification. They are not formally trained to provide smoking cessation, how to properly sterilize equipment/operatories, nutritional counseling, how to properly rubber cup polish etc. Allowing a dental assistant I to use a cavitron, which was designed to excavate cavities, is absolutely scary! The board needs to address misrepresentation of care provided by a dental assistant I. Patients will assume they are being treated by a licensed dental hygienist since an insurance claim will be filed or the patient will self pay for the dental service without receiving the same care.  The care is unethical and seems to be fraudulent.   Moreover, there is no oversight and evaluation of the training by an impartial objective evaluator.  Dentists by nature are not educators. Effective education involves assessing student learning at various points in time to observe changes and measure how much students have learned. The information gathered can be used for accountability or to provide instructional feedback, and it can be expressed through verbal comments, written reports, numerical scores, or growth curves. Documentation of student progress is essential to assessing student performance. 

If the “scaling tech” is going to move forward, the board needs to ensure dental assistant I scaling techs have appropriate documented training and evaluation of clinical skills/didactic knowledge by an EXTERNAL unbiased entity. The VABOD needs to require that the patient is informed about the care they will receive from dental assistant I so the patient can make an informed decision about their dental care.  This informed consent must become part of the required legal documentation of a chart note.