I have been a CDA a licensed dental hygienist for over 25 years, and a dental educator for almost 20 of those years. I was a program director of both an accredited dental assisting and dental hygiene program. I do NOT believe that dental assistants have the neccessary science and dental educational background to scale teeth.  It would be a critical error and a huge disservice to the public we are pledged to serve,  to allow such duties to be delgated to dental assistants.  I oppose any regulation which would allow the least educated and knowlegable member of the dental team to perform such skills on patients. We have a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that the general public is provided the highest level of care possible in the Commonwealth of Virginia without consideration of economic benefits to the private practice dentist.  It must be about quality care and public safety, not "less expensive labor workforce" to boost dental practice income.

Do the right thing and protect our patient's health; stop this proposal now.