As dental assistant of 14 years and CDA for the last 6, there was a time when I thought there should be such an amendment.  I thought that since the dentist was “trained” and I had been in the profession for so long, that he should be able to educate me and allow me the opportunity to help serve the community in combating the need for dental hygienists.  

Now that I am a junior dental hygiene student, I am very thankful that there has never been such a measure.  There is an intense training of educating the patient as well as proper ways of instrumentation.  I am learning so much on a daily basis.  I don’t know how all of this could be summed up in a “weekend” course and dental hygiene classes are doubling.

In reference to the training aspect, I even have reservations about a dentist “training” the DAII.  Before my educational process, I assumed that the dentist had just as much training, if not more, than the dental hygienist.  Therefore, the dentist should be allowed to “train” me as a dental hygienist.  I was mistaken.  Their forte is in regards to the restorative aspects.  Ours is the periodontium.  I have been in an office where the dentist thought it was “acceptable” to scale the anteriors, have me polish the posteriors, and call that a cleaning without ever checking a probing depth or re-evaluating.  Is that who you would want to do your cleanings or train your DAII?  Is that what we want as the standard of care?

I am all for progression and change as long as it does not negatively affect the care of our patients.  Unless a person has been through an accredited 2-4 year program, they do not have the proper skills to educate and care for the periodontium.  After all, it is the foundation of the teeth.  Now that I am pursuing an education in the field of dental hygiene, I have learned that there is a lot of damage that could be done if it is not done properly and I often wonder if I caused any along the way when I “thought” I knew what I was doing.

Please do not demean our profession by allowing unqualified persons to do what we have worked so hard for.  The patients would be the ones to suffer the horrendous consequences.