Go to the Idaho State Board of Dentistry's Web page (www2.state.id.us/isbd/) and you'll read this mission statement: "To assure the public health, safety and welfare in the state of Idaho by the licensure and regulation of dentists and dental hygienists."

You'll notice that one member of the oral health care team is missing — the dental assistant.

Ask the average Idahoan on the street, "Does a dental assistant, the person who spends a great deal of time with her/his hands in your mouth in your dentist's office, by Idaho state law have to meet some set of minimum standards of education on which she/he has been tested and credentialed? Is there a requirement to post that license or certification in plain view for each patient to see?"

Chances are everyone you ask will say yes. And they would be wrong.

After all, other professionals such as barbers, cosmetologists, driving instructors, landscape architects, real estate appraisers and shorthand reporters all have to be licensed, and not one of those works in the antiseptic environment of a dental assistant. And they don't expose their clients to radiation through X-rays or handle blood-borne pathogens left by a previous patient.  

Fact is, Idaho is one of the only states that doesn't require a dental assistant to be properly educated, tested and certified.

Yet the Idaho State Board of Dentistry, at its last meeting on July 24, voted 6-2 to abandon an effort that started two years ago to address this oversight. All of the dentists on the panel voted to deny this protection to the dental consumer. The two votes to tighten up regulations for dental assistants in order to meet the board's mission "to assure the public health, safety and welfare," were cast by the two dental hygienists' representatives.  

The dentists on the panel felt the board would be overwhelmed by the task of certifying that the state's dental assistants are actually qualified, and they felt the responsibility of addressing qualifications should lie with the individual dentist, even though there is currently a requirement for licensure of dental hygienists, whose work is also overseen by a dentist.

The dentists also felt the responsibility of approving a curriculum and subsequent testing for proprietary schools which would teach dental assistants should lie elsewhere, but the board is currently approving many of the schools springing up around the state that teach dental assistants. They're approving the schools even though they aren't requiring that at the end of the course the students be required to pass a minimum standards test, and even though most of the dentists on the panel agree that a large number of the students coming out of these "schools" aren't qualified to operate inside of a dentist's office without additional training.  

To the board's credit, the members have been struggling with this issue for a long time. However, when the time came to vote, the board failed miserably in its task to protect the public it's empowered to serve.

- Sally Kane, BSDH, RDH-EA, is president of the Idaho Dental Hygienists Association.