What is this called?

[dwadeffan]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi,

I am preparing for an interview and was wondering what it is called when a hygienist is able to start their own practice and do strictly hygiene. I know that this can be an issue for the dentist because he or she loses these patients and that this isn't allowed in every state yet. Would this be something good to talk about concerning the negative aspect of dentistry.

 

[THS]

I think hygienists can own dental practices in 2 states only right now, (Minnesota and Arizona - I think). However, I'm not sure about the legality of hygienists practicing without the supervision of a dentist, or without a dentist on the premises. My wife (a hygienist) says they can practice without a dentist on site, but there are certain circumstances that allow this, and they have certain limitations as to what they can do.

One negative aspect would be that hygienists can't legally diagnose anything. So they can't do SRP without a Dr's diagnosis of periodontal disease. They can't tell the patient they see a carious lesion, or that they need a root canal. All they could say is "this looks suspicious/this resembles ___...you should get it checked out by a dentist." So a dentist would need to be there pretty much all the time, which would be expensive if the practice was trying to make all of their production from hygiene.

This business model may make sense for medicaid (or even non-medicaid) pedo patients, where they have a high volume of patients coming in for 5-10 minute toothbrush prophies.

I don't think this is a big enough deal to discuss at an interview, but go for it if you are interested in this topic. Perhaps mention mid-level providers (dental therapists), decreasing insurance reimbursements with increasing costs of doing business, stuff like that.

 

[Racquetball3r]

Looks like it may be referred to as "Direct Access". I pulled up this website from the American Dental Hygiene Association. https://www.adha.org/resources-docs/7513_Direct_Access_to_Care_from_DH.pdf