Virginia lawmakers consider bills to address dental hygienist shortage

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – Two bills working their way through the Virginia General Assembly aim to address what some say is a shortage of dental hygienists, though professionals in the field disagree on the scope of the problem.

One bill (HB970 / SB178) would create “preventative dental assistants” and allow them to perform cleanings above the gumline after obtaining new certification.

The other (HB1036 / SB282) would open a pathway for some foreign-trained dentists to be granted a Virginia dental hygiene license.

The Virginia Dental Association says the measures are necessary to help compensate for a shortage of hygienists.

“You tell me, when you go to your dentist’s office and they say your next cleaning is going to be in a year, if you miss that appointment, you’re done for another year. It’s hard to get the appointments because we just don’t have that personnel. So it’s a severe workforce crisis. It’s getting worse,” said Dr. Frank Iuorno, an orthodontist in Glen Allen and past president of the Virginia Dental Association.

However, the Virginia Dental Hygienists’ Association disputes that characterization.

“The idea that there’s not enough hygienists in Virginia is actually a factually false statement. There are not enough hygienists willing to work under current environments,” said Derik Sven, president of the Virginia Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Sven said hygienists are leaving because of “toxic work environments, workplace sabotage and bullying and lack of career advancement opportunities.”

Iuorno cited a Virginia Department of Health workforce study showing that 95% of hygienists surveyed reported being satisfied or were very satisfied with their jobs.

The president of the Virginia Dental Hygienists’ Association believes the proposed changes could be dangerous for patients.

“The Dental Association is now saying, ‘Well, we’re just going to have dental assistants start doing the work of dental hygienists.’ Dental assistants in Virginia do not have any formal education training. You can grab anybody off the street and slap a sticker on them and call them a dental assistant,” Sven said.

Dentists argue the new certification process would include proper training.

“This is no risk to health in any way. We are not replacing hygienist with this certification process for dental assistants to clean above the gum line. It is really to allow our hygienists to be more productive, so the dental assistant with the proper training and certification can clean above the gum line, and then the hygienist can go back and clean below,” Iuorno said.

VCU’s School of Dentistry churns out the most dentists and dental hygienists in the Richmond area. One of the doctors with the school released a statement about the matter.

“The VCU School of Dentistry recognizes the challenges associated with the dental hygiene workforce shortage and supports collaborative efforts to expand access to preventive oral health care for communities across the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Lyndon F. Cooper, D.D.S., Ph.D., Dean of VCU School of Dentistry said.

Committees in both the House and Senate will discuss the bills Thursday morning.

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