Top 10 Things to Know About Your Dental Hygienist

These days, a visit with your dental hygienist may result in more benefits than just cleaner teeth and healthier gums -- you might even decide to stop smoking, improve your nutrition or check to see if you might be at risk for diabetes.

"Most people simply don't realize just how educated and skilled their dental hygienists are," said Susan McLearan, president of the California Dental Hygienists' Association (CDHA). "The profession has evolved to the point where we actually can save lives."

In keeping with its mission to raise public awareness about dental health and to promote the value of seeing a dental hygienist, the association has issued the following list of the Top Ten Things Californians Should Know About Their Dental Hygienists.

"The list is intended to show how dental hygienists play such an integral role in overall public health -- in many different ways and on many different levels."

That role is reflected in the following facts about Registered Dental
Hygienists (RDH):

1. Highly Educated Professionals -- The minimum level of education for licensure is equivalent to a four-year degree with two years specializing in dental hygiene.

2. Committed to Expanding Access to Care -- Specially licensed hygienists can go into underserved communities and provide dental hygiene services to some of the millions of Californians who would otherwise have no access to dental care.

3. Screen for Oral Cancer -- Dental hygienists possess the skills to be the first health professional to identify potential signs of oral cancer and refer a patient to a physician.

4. Promote Healthy Nutrition -- Dental hygienists can tell if a patient is eating poorly or is malnourished; they can then offer helpful advice and information.

5. Spot Signs of Eating Disorders -- Also related to nutritional issues, eating disorders can also be recognized in the mouth during a check up.

6. Recognize Signs of Diabetes -- Dental hygienists can alert patients that they might be in danger from diabetes, and refer them to seek confirmation from a medical doctor.

7. Promote Smoking Cessation -- When examining patients who smoke tobacco, dental hygienists often will counsel them to quit and provide resources and information about steps they can take to stop smoking.

8. Prevent Gum and Periodontal Disease -- By cleaning and examining teeth and gums, dental hygienists play a major role in preventing common oral diseases.

9. Understand the Link Between Oral Health and Emotional Health in Children -- Dental hygienists are passionate about promoting good oral health among children, who can often suffer speech impediments, social ridicule, diminished self esteem and other problems related to poor oral health.

10. Represented by CDHA, the Official Voice of Dental Hygiene -- Since CDHA was established 20 years ago, dental hygienists have been making continuous strides toward becoming the skilled, autonomous and essential public health professionals that they are today.

Furthermore, dental hygienists are qualified to detect a wide range of other life-threatening conditions, including high blood pressure and HIV.

"The items on our list really underscore that the mouth is a window into a person's comprehensive health," said CDHA's McLearan. "And because the average person sees a hygienist more often than a physician, it is especially important for people to understand the many facets and benefits of the dental hygiene profession."

The California Dental Hygienists' Association (CDHA) is the authoritative voice of the state's dental hygiene profession. While registered dental hygienists have worked in the state for nearly a century, CDHA was established 20 years ago when two regional associations merged to form a unified professional group. CDHA represents thousands of dental hygienists throughout the state and is dedicated to expanding opportunities for the
profession and access to care for all Californians.

Source: California Dental Hygienists' Association




Dental hygienists want the Legislature to enact a first-in-the-nation
program that would let them provide more comprehensive care for poor people who lack regular access to dentists.

The trade association for dentists says it will oppose the bill when a
legislative committee takes it up at a public hearing on Friday.

Both groups acknowledge that there is a shortage of dentists in Maine and that the problem is especially severe in some rural counties. Also, some dentists refuse to participate in the government-funded Medicaid program for the poor and disabled, partly because they view state reimbursements as inadequate.

But the two disagree on whether hygienists can be trained properly to help fill the gap or whether the solution is to recruit more dentists, relieve them of routine office duties and pay them more to serve Medicaid patients.

A bill backed by the Maine Dental Hygienists' Association would instruct the state Board of Dental Examiners, which oversees dentists and hygienists, to create a program that, in the words of the proposed law, would "allow dental hygienists certified by the board to provide dental care outside of a dental office to low-income persons" and to Mainers who are covered by Medicaid.

The legislation would not specifically prohibit hygienists from doing
additional work in dentists' offices, but it is geared toward helping people elsewhere, such as children in schools.

The bill would require that participating hygienists be licensed by the
state, complete a one-year internship with a dentist or an already certified hygienist, and receive additional training in an accredited school. With those credentials, they could provide a range of services that hygienists cannot provide now, such as removing baby teeth, filling cavities and removing exposed nerves to control pain.

If the bill becomes law, hygienists "would be able to help the underserved in the state of Maine," said Michelle Gallant of Rockport, president of the hygienists' association.

Gallant said the bill would expand what hygienists can do for children in public-health settings, such as schools, pediatricians' offices and Head Start programs.

"We see so many children with serious dental problems and they have no place to go," Gallant said. "The need is overwhelming."

The Maine Dental Association, which represents dentists, counters that the bill would not give hygienists enough training to do what they want to do. That association says dentists are taking steps to relieve the shortage of dentists by training dental assistants to handle more in-office duties, freeing up time for dentists to see more patients.

"A one-year internship with a dentist is just not long enough," said John Bastey of the dentists' group. Although the bill also calls for more formal training in a school setting, Bastey said there is no established curriculum for such training because there is no precedent in any other state for what the hygienists' association wants to do in Maine.

Nationally, there is one dentist for every 1,700 Americans, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. In Maine, each active dentist served an average of 2,252 people in 2006, according to state statistics, and that number varies dramatically from county to county.

For example, Knox County had one dentist for every 1,465 people in 2006. The ratio was one dentist per 1,478 residents in Cumberland County. There were far fewer dentists, per capita, in Somerset and Waldo counties. The number of people per dentist topped 4,200 residents in each county.

Maine dentists provided about 42,000 hours of free dental care last year, according to Bastey, but more than 40 percent refuse to participate in the Medicaid program. He said Medicaid reimbursements fail to reimburse dentists adequately for their costs, there is a "paperwork nightmare" associated with filing Medicaid claims, and ongoing problems with the state's Medicaid billing system have made some dentists leery of participating.

It is hard to predict how the Legislature will respond to the bill, because a public hearing has not yet been held and because the bill would break new ground in Maine dental care.