RDH are a fantastic adjunct to the dentist and I've worked with many great ones.  But lately, the salaries for RDHs have gotten out of control with many choosing temp work for higher pay.

We have a shortage of RDHs that want to stay in one office with one patient base.  Insurance plans are paying less and less.  So the market is squeezing dentists on both ends - unreasonable salary expectations and unsustainable insurance reimbursements.  I has also worked with many excellent dental assistants who are as technically skilled as doctors or hygienists when dealing with teeth.  Having extra training and under doctor supervision, I am more than confident that scaling assistants can do as good a cleaning as a doctor or RDH.  The reason this whole law came about was to provide relief for the doctors and provide more access to dental health for the patients.  RDHs will still be utilized for SRPs.