Virginia Dental Hygienists’ Association Position Paper

As a dental hygienist who had to go through years of training and education this is appalling! Please do not put your citizens health at risk!

Hygienists uniting to protect our patients

Insanity. Why make it worse. What are you doing? You’d get people to work if they had time to eat, pee, not do others work, no factory care, no focus on sales. It’s people and health we deal with!! B.

ADA please support the Dental Hygiene Profession.

I support the Virginia Dental Hygienists’ Association regarding this.

Allowed unlicensed individuals performing the procedure is posing the risk of patient care, lowering the standard of care, creating more harm than good

Hoping they come to their senses and make the correct decision. I did not go to school for so long to have it be downgraded. They can reimburse me for my student loans if so!!

This is evil. You cannot tell me this is good for the public. Please don’t make yet another thing in healthcare substandard just to meet the needs of peoples pockets! This is killing me!

I have been a Registered Dental Hygienist for 37 years and went through an extremely difficult curriculum of education to obtain my degree. I do not believe that on the job training or any other short cut to become a dental hygienist is harmful to the profession and our patients.

This would be a travesty! Only dental hygienist with a formal education and passing of national and state boards should be allowed to practice dental hygiene!

Im am unfathomable that this even has to be done. We speak for the patients whom have disease that need the right treatment and those that expect quality care of their oral health, Especially when systemic diseases are linked to oral health.

This is unsafe and must not be allowed.

I strongly oppose substandard care for patients, including dental hygiene patients. Patients deserve a dental hygienist who has been trained within a CODA approved dental hygiene course, passed the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination, and passed a clinical examination. If an individual is unable to complete these steps then they are unable to deliver quality dental hygiene care to patients. As a registered dental hygienist, with 12 years of practice, I am appalled this is even being considered. I myself would not want to be a patient of such substandard care, nor would I want any of my family to be either. I will refer my family out of state if this passes because quality dental hygiene is essential. Dentists are trained for 1 to 2 weeks on scaling. Dental hygienists are trained for 2 years. Need I say more?

Please stop this as there are licensed professionals with college degrees for a reason. Thank you!

As a registered dental, hygienist, licensed and trained in my profession beyond the years required for licensure, I strongly oppose the position of an OPA. This is not that I am opposed to a dental assistant, expanding their scope of practice and function. I am in support of expanding any role within the Dental auxiliary so long as they have gone through the rigorous educational process and licensure required.

For you Nat

Dental Hygienist need to be autonomous.

Dental hygienists require schooling and proper years long instruction. Not some hire that gets trained on the job!

TEETH ARE GOOD

In my experience, American trained dentists do not do even remotely a thorough job during cleanings, leaving behind a decent amount of tartar below the gumline during routine cleanings and during scaling and root planings. This is happening in a country where dental hygiene has been a career for over 100 years! I don't suspect that dentists coming from countries with no where near the track record in dental hygiene knowledge/respect will even do as good as even that.