I am very much in aggreement with Dr. Bruce Hutchison regarding giving dental assistants the right to scale Class I perio patients.  As Dr. Hutchison said, our dental assistants  are presently removing temporary cement fron crowns which would be comparable do scaling a class I perio patient/  I think the number One benefit is economic for the practice as well as the patient.  I am presently paying my hygienists $45 to $48 per hour.  Unfortunately when a family with numerous children comes into the practice we are forced to charge a very substantial fee to cover our highest expense: our labor costs. 

Unfortunately some families reluctantly leave the practice to go to a high discount HMO prasctices. I feel that  using dental assistants to scale and polish these children is by no means offering an inferior service and it allows us nto keep our fees down and thus pass that benefit onto the public. At the same time the Hygienists can be utilizzing the skills they were trained to do treating the adults and more difficult and challenging cases.

These are difficult ecconomic times for patients as well as for the dental profession. Any decisions that can be made by the board that maintain the same quality of care for the patient and potentially offer services at a lesser price and still benefit the dentist as well as the public is a no brainer.

Please consider giving a dental assistants the right to scale Class I perio patients.

Thank you,

Ken Giberson