I whole-heartedly disagree with the proposal to allow dental assistants to provide "scalings" to patients.  I went to dental hygiene school for 2 years (and another 4 at Virginia Tech); even then when I passed state boards, I was still very inexperienced and it took me another 2-3 years to feel very confident in removing subgingival calculus.  I can imagine how much subgingival calculus will be accidentally missed due to these proposed DA II's.  I worked as a contractor the military and in the military, they have DA II's.  Trust me, the amount of calculus and subsequent rampant periodontal disease in the military from missed calculus is mind-boggling.  This is what would happen in the state of VA.  Think of all the lawsuits that would occur due to missed subgingival calculus and gingival curettage due to improperly-trained  and poorly-educated DA II's.  Sure, most dentists will be for it....they won't have to hire and pay RDH's to do the proper job.   But with that, you are offering up sub-standard care...point blank.  It would be supervised neglect and those dentists that are for this proposal are agreeing to supervised neglect.  They surely must not want the best for their patients, their gingival health and the opportunity to allow for proper oral hygiene education.  Gingival health is the foundation for healthy teeth, yet the proposal is to allow improperly-trained and poorly-educated DA II's to care for the gingiva and what's underneath?  NO WAY!!  What a terrible idea!  I can think of NOTHING worse for dental patients, dental hygienists and dentists.  This is awful.....