Absolutely NO!  Dental assistants do not have the expertise, education, or training to properly debride/scale teeth.  If you allow them to scale only supra calculus, then who will determine and check for sub calculus.  When a person comes to have their teeth cleaned, they do not want only a superficial,  half job completed in their mouth, but patients expect  the full job completed.  And yes, many patients do not understand the signigficance of having the job done correctly so proper education is also required by the hygienist when scaling teeth.

As an educator, I can see the time it takes to work effectively with students in learning the process of calculus removal.  If the assistant wants to be a hygienist, then let them go to school for two or more years to learn proper instrumentation.  We have worked long and hard to build our professional careers  and do not need dental assistants-II destroying our names by not having the competencies required to be hygienists.  We are required to take national exams and boards, will these assistants be able to pass these boards?

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