I feel that as hygienists, we need to take a stand on this issue of assistants being allowed to scale teeth.  We went to school and were trained thoroughly.  It would be a disgrace to our profession to change the standard of care now.  I would not want to go to a dentist who did not have a degree  and credentials to perform a procedure on my children or myself.  I also wouldn't want to have someone scale my teeth that did not have the extensive training  in how to perform the procedure.  Please carefully consider these issues.UA