The profession of a dental hygienist requires the full education that we hygienist were required to obtain in order to practice. Without that extensive education I do not believe anybody would be skilled enough to understand the full obligations of this profession.  There is a much needed thorough clinical skill education that each person needs in order to practice safely in anyones mouth.  I believe if patients knew that dental assistants with no education in dental hygiene were doing their routine prophylaxis they would allow that.  As dental hygienist we have the education to explain the disease process of the mouth to patients in a manner that they can understand. We as dental hygienist have the ability to answer questions in the same manner a dentist would answer periodontal questions for a patient. Overall I believe our profession should be valued and therefore allowing someone with little to no education to do the same type of work is just reasonable.