Do you only clean the top of your ?? dinner plate? No. Do you only disinfect the top of your toilet ?? seat? God, I hope not! Do you only remove the barnacles on a ?? boat that you can see? No. So why is it ok to put tiny little knives (aka scalers & currettes) into the hands of a dental assistant or other untrained "professional"? Then you REQUIRE them to pop off what calculus they can only be seen with the naked ?? eye.

This is taking advantage of the Assistant. This is putting their license in jeopardy. This is a one way ticket ?? to burning them out just like hygienists. So answer me this. Do you want all the Dental Assistants to leave ??‍?? the field as well?

Do you want to put your license on the line? Do you want to put the public in harms way? This is the equivalent of choosing profit over profession.

I personally feel there is no such thing as only supragingival calculus. Where there's supra, there's sub: therefore, one must go under the gum (aka sub) in order to remove the unhealthy deposits. Supragingival scaling does not equal = a prophylaxis (aka prophy/cleaning).

Supragingival scaling when there is also sub, coronal polishing and flossing alone equates to supervised neglect. Those who knowingly do an incomplete prophy or worse bloody prophies that are truly undiagnosed periodontal disease, quite frankly are committing insurance fraud. After all you are coding it as a Prophylaxis (aka prophy) when a true prophy by a trained prevention specialist (aka Registered Dental Hygienist) was not done.