I've been practicing as a dental hygienist for over 26 years and am appauled that any dental board would allow any Jane/Joe Shmoe off the streets to be trained in a dental office by a dentist to scale and polish teeth!!!!  There are so many ramifications to performing these procedures without knowing what to do when they occur.  Injury to tissues by improper angulation of sharp instruments to overheating  is just the tip of this problem.  Assistants have been removing cements from crown seats only to leave subgingival cement which causes periodontal problems.  They were trained chairside to remove the cement by the dentists they have worked with.  The dentists have been trying for years to find ways to pay their staff the bare minimum in salaries.  This is yet another attempt.  Eliminating the need for dental hygienists is their goal.  Make the assistants become hygienists and I will support them scaling and polishing.  Education is paramount!!!  I wouldn't want a plummer to be my gynecologist, WOULD YOU????    Why not allow plummers to operate on your children??!!  Same point as allowing assistants to scale and polish.     Isn't it bad enough that malls and Sam's Clubs have "whitening stations" dispensing the same bleaching solutions to Jane and Joe Q.  Public that we dispense??!!!  They legally get around the law by handing the trays to the customer to have them place the tray in their own mouths.  Why bother having a dental specialty????