California Dental Hygienists one Step Closer to Self-Regulation

Senate Bill 1472 Passes Out of Key Assembly Committee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (June 29, 2006) -- Moving one step closer to the Governor’s desk, Senate Bill 1472 was approved by a key Assembly policy committee that seeks to establish an autonomous bureau that would oversee the education, licensure and practice of registered dental hygienists in California.

Senate Bill 1472 (Figueroa), considered landmark legislation, is the result of more than three years of negotiations with the Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee and the California Dental Association.

“It is time to end the inherent conflict that exists in this state with employers regulating another licensed profession,” says Lin Sarfaraz, RDH, AS, Immediate Past President of the California Dental Hygienists’ Association (CDHA)She said that “history has proven that the current system of regulation has been repeatedly used as a political tool to block the efforts of dental hygienists to expand access to oral health care and to protect consumers against decreased education for the dental hygiene profession.”

It was agreed by the CDHA and the California Dental Association (CDA) that before legislation would be drafted for an autonomous agency to oversee the profession of dental hygiene -, the scope of practice for dental hygienists would be moved from state regulation to statute. This action alleviated concerns on the part of CDA that the new regulatory agency could not easily increase the scope of practice for the registered dental hygienist. This agreement was accomplished via SB 2022 (Figueroa), and chaptered in 2003. Both CDHA and CDA worked extensively on the language of SB 2022.

In addition, SB 1955 (Figueroa), chaptered in 2003, stated the intent of the California legislature to create “an independent board that would regulate the practice of dental hygienists.” This intent was based on intensive review over several legislative cycles by the Senate and Assembly Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee.

The CDA claims it never agreed to support an autonomous agency to regulate dental hygiene, despite public testimony at legislative hearings and meetings with legislative staff, legislators and lobbyists to the contrary. In the most recent hearing, Cathy Mudge, CDA lobbyist, told Assembly committee members that it was all a “misunderstanding.”

These statements on the part of CDA have undermined trust between the two associations, CDHA officials said.

“It is amazing to me CDA would have the audacity to tell elected officials that they never agreed to support an autonomous dental hygiene regulatory agency when they fully participated in meetings with legislators and their staff to discuss this very subject,” says JoAnn Galliano, MEd, RDH, and member of CDHA’s Government Relations Council.

SB 1472 has already passed the Senate and as of June 27, 2006, passed the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions. When the legislature reconvenes in August SB 1472 will go to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. Once it passes this committee, the bill will go for a full vote of the Assembly and then on to the Governor for final signature.

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