My mom worked as a temp all over northern Virginia and wouldn't allow majority of the dentists she worked for to even put a filling in her mouth! She even witnessed one charging a patient for a crown extension rather than the actual procedure he had done... These are the type of people who would be training high school graduates with nothing more than x-ray certification to scale teeth?! I think not!

Hygienists go to school for more than 2 years considering there are pre-requisites to even get in! And now the board is actually considering allowing people who have barely any training to go over people's teeth? This is wrong on so many levels.

First: The military has a TERRIBLE system!! My dad at 23 years old came out of the marines with BAD periodontal disease and lost several teeth!

Second: The insurance companies will get wind of this, as it has been said before, and start lowering coverage costs, thus affecting the amount the idiotic supporters of this get paid in the long run.

Third: Due to the assistants being unfamiliar with the anatomy of the mouth and so many other aspects of teeth cleaning, people will end up in a far worse condition... which will result in more legal cases!

Fourth: Many hygienists have said in this forum that they went in to a person's mouth who seemed to be a case that many dentists would pass to an assistant (if this were passed) and upon cleaning noticed far worse damage than what was originally assumed.

Fifth: it's obvious that these dentists wouldn't follow the rules. Or did they not see that all of the assistant II's would have to be under their DIRECT supervision?? This means that a person who went thru 8+ years of school would have to watch someone do the work that they would normally just quickly check afterwards....

I could go on and on, but many valid points have been made as to why this should not even be considered!

I'd also like to make note as it was mentioned in a previous statement that more than 90% of the supporting dentists come from large cities where there are hygiene schools open, clearly showing their greed. I personally am making note of every dentist supporting this IGNORANT notion and will make it a point to advertise them as pursuing quantity over quality because the public deserves to know!!