Dental hygienists in the U.S. are expressing their concerns on social media after the American Dental Association (ADA) passed a resolution allowing unlicensed practitioners to provide dental hygiene services.
Recently, the ADA voted to pass resolutions 401, 413, and 514B to eliminate student-faculty ratios in dental hygiene programs and allow dental students and foreign-trained dentists to practice dental hygiene in the U.S. without passing a state licensing exam.
“As someone who has struggled to overcome barriers such as profound hearing loss, I was disheartened to see the recent proposal from the ADA to allow foreign-trained dentists to provide dental hygiene services without a license,” wrote a dental hygienist on the That Deaf RDH account, which has 1,411 followers on Instagram.
Another user responded, “I feel for you,” adding, “We work so hard to get our licenses, but how can a licensed dentist not practice in all states in our country?”
In another comment, a user named tooth_fairynyc responded to the video with a solution:
“We should open more dental hygiene schools. We should lower tuition and increase acceptance rates, even with C grades, so we can hire more dental hygienists.”
“We don’t need international dentists providing hygiene services to patients in the U.S., and maybe we should have international dentists working in offices with lower insurance reimbursements to compensate those dentists who expect to be paid more in-network.”
In an open letter published by the American Dental Hygienists Association (ADHA), Erin Haley-Hitz, RDH, president, strongly opposed the resolutions.
“The measures proposed in these resolutions threaten the integrity of the profession and patient outcomes and fundamentally undermine the dental hygiene profession,” Haley-Hitz said.
“ADHA firmly believes that rather than lowering professional standards and undermining complementary careers, we should proactively work to improve workplace culture, enhance professional development opportunities, and provide competitive benefits.”
According to the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute (HPI), the dental industry is facing a workforce shortage, with a 10% reduction in practice capacity due to declining enrollment in dental assistant and hygiene programs, a trend exacerbated by COVID-19.
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