Dental Students to Become Dental Hygienists

On August 24th, the Governor signed AB 539 (Laird)-The Dental Student Bill. The bill was authored and sponsored by the California Dental Association (CDA) and makes possible for third and fourth year dental students to become registered dental hygienists. CDA contended that by allowing dental students to work as dental hygienists while they were in dental school, the dental students could make money to be used to reduce the high cost of their dental education.

The California Dental Hygienists’ Association (CDHA) waged an impressive e-mail and letter writing campaign against the bill. CDHA contended that the third and fourth year dental student would not have the same amount of clinical expertise that a dental hygiene school graduate would have, therefore allowing a less educated candidate to sit for the licensing exam and potentially subjecting the consumer to a reduced standard of care.

Although CDHA was unable to defeat the bill, Assembly Member Laird agreed to several amendments proposed by CDHA and CDHA lobbyists Aaron Read and Terry McHale. The amendments addressed CDHA’s concerns regarding exam costs, renewal of the license by the dental student, and revocation of the license if the dental student failed to complete dental school.

The following summarizes the key points of the bill.

· For third or fourth year dental students to qualify for the RDH license, they must pass both the National Dental Hygiene Board Exam and the California State Clinical Licensing Exam;

• To qualify to take either board exam, the dental student must be “in good standing” at an accredited California dental school;
• The dental hygiene license will be granted for 2 years upon passage of the RDH licensure exam, without the ability for renewal;
• If a dental student fails to remain in good standing, or fails to graduate, the license will be revoked;
• Upon receipt of a license to practice dentistry, the RDH license will automatically be revoked;
• The fee for dental students to take the licensure exam will cover the cost of administering and taking the exam;
• The dental student RDH may only practice in a dental practice that serves patients who are insured under Denti-Cal, the Healthy Families Program, or other government programs, or a dental practice that has a sliding scale fee system based on income;
• To perform direct supervision duties (administration of local anesthetic, nitrous oxide-oxygen sedation, soft tissue curettage), they must take a board (Dental Board of California-DBC) approved course for each; or
• The dental school could seek recognition for their training by submitting the course(s) that teach these functions for approval from the DBC.
• This bill will become inoperative as of January 1, 2009. This means that prior to that time another bill will have to be passed to continue to allow dental students to qualify for licensure as a registered dental hygienist beyond the January 1, 2009 deadline.

All CDHA members, potential members, friends and family that sent e-mails, faxes, and letters are to be commended for their efforts to maintain the current high quality of dental hygiene care being offered to the consumer.

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