Once again Virginia dentists want to reduce the quality of care to the citizens of the Commonwealth.  Have we not been down this road before?  The intent of creating two levels of dental assistant was NOT to allow any type of scaling by dental assistants, but to enhance their education and improve the quality of care delivered by the entire dental team and to have more uniformity within the pool of dental assistants.  Each member of the dental team has an area of expertise.  Each member should be well educated, unfortunately in Virginia, many dental assistants do not receive the education needed to be a member of the oral health team.  This is an opportunity for dental asssitants to improve the knowlege and skills necessary to be experts at what they do best, assisting the dentist or dental hygienist.   Allowing supra or sub gingival scaling does nothing to improve the dental team's effort of providing quality care to patients.  It only compromises care best done by those who do this best, the dental hygienist. 

There are shortages in the Commonwealth of all types of health care providers.  Reducing the level of education for those providing care does nothing to improve access to care.  It only increases the dollars created for the practice.  Dentists are not going to reduce their fees for care provided by lesser trained individuals and patients will be none the wiser.  Face it; fees in dentistry are based on usual and customary fees determined by insurance companies.  Not supply and demand or the level of experience of the provider of that care. 

The Board of Dentistry should not allow anyone other than the dental hygineist or dentist to utilize instruments that remove the calcareous deposits formed above or below the gumline and that inculdes the 3mm sulcus of perio I patients.

Lesa K. Crane, RDH, BSHS