Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill into law that allows dental assistants to practice as oral preventive assistants.
Senate Bill 1124 establishes the qualifications needed, which includes dental assistants completing an oral preventive assistant training course with at least 120 hours of didactic and clinical instruction.
Oral preventive assistants are permitted to remove plaque, calculus and stains with scalers, sonic or ultrasonic scaling devices, on patients who have first received a periodontal evaluation by a dentist or dental hygienist.
Prior to taking the training course, individuals must hold a current certification in CPR, a board-approved certification for both coronal polishing and radiography, and either hold a current national board certification in dental assisting or have successfully completed a dental assisting educational program accredited by a state or national organization.
Oral preventive assistants can only practice under the direct supervision of a dentist or dental hygienist. A dentist may not supervise more than three assistants at once, while dental hygienists can only supervise one assistant at a time.
The bill was first introduced in the state Senate in January.
