I  thank the Board of Dentistry for its concern about the access to care issue. Promoting the Dental Assistant II in any form is not the way to address this issue. The safety and health of the public is at stake when educational standards are lowered.  There should not be a tiered system in place and all patients should expect to be treated with the highest level of ability, not scaling to only 3mm of depth when oops! there is deposit at 4mm! The dental hygienist has education of total patient care not, just scaling. Why train another individual when a dental hygienist already fills this role?

Nancy Brohawn RDH, BSDH, hygienist of 36 years