Please do not allow assistants to scale.  It takes dental hygienist two years to learn how to care for patients.  We spend many hours in class learning the theory behind our practice.  The theory is essential to develop an individualized care plan for each patient.  Also, it takes many clinical hours to learn how to properly use all the instruments, detect calculus, and remove all of the calculus.  Allowing assistance to scale would be detrimental to the patient.  They would not be recieving the same care as a patient being treated by a trained hygienist.  If dental assistants want to scale then they should go to hygiene school.  Who would classify the patients as a class 1 perio?  How much superviosion can be given to them when the dentist is working in another operatory?  I believe it will be painful and take longer for the patient to heal if assistants are allowed to scale.  Who will teach them about premedication and medication affects that affect the treatment plan?  Please do not let assistants scale without the proper education, leave the scaling to hygienists- it's what we do.

Thank you

Stacy Ralston