I'm absolutely appalled that there is any consideration of allowing non-licensed professionals to do a licensed duty.  How is this not substandard care?  All dental professionals know that there is much more involved in true overall patient oral health care than just supragingival scaling.  It seems to me that those who want to "save" money by allowing dental assistants to scale will actually spend more money in the long run, because who's going to examine the patient before and after the assistant scales to check subginvally?  It make more sense and is a better use of time management as well as patient attention, care, and education to have a skilled knowledgable dental hygienist perform all of these duties at once rather than divide them up.  Not to mention, switching people in between for 1 patient not only increases time but increases the risk of disease or other being missed?  And lets not forget that we live in a lawsuit-happy society.  Our patients are not stupid, and they will catch on that they are not being treated or educated appropriately thus receiving substandard care, which I guarentee will cost many dentists A LOT of money for negligence!  To become a dental hygienst is an extremely intense process lasting 2 years.  There is a reason for this, and thank god some dentists truly understand and appreciate the outstanding dental hygiene professionals and their irreplaceable contributions to overall patient care.