Maryland improves access to dental care

Maryland hygienists will be able to treat patients without dentist supervision under legislation passed this month in Maryland.

The Maryland Legislature also allocated more than $16 million to fund other measures aimed at improving dental care in the state.

The new rules will go into effect October 1, 2008.

Currently, public facilities needed to file a waiver with the Maryland State Board of Dental Examiners to allow dental hygienists to perform dental hygiene on a patient without the dentist first seeing the patient, wrote Stacey Chappell, governmental affairs manager at the American Dental Hygienists' Association, in an e-mail to DrBicuspid.com.

The new legislation allows hygienists to perform certain tasks in a public setting without the waiver. Some of the public places include:

  • Dental facilities owned and operated by federal, state, or local governments
  • Public health department or schools
  • Health facilities licensed by the public health department
  • State-licensed Head Start or Early Head Start programs

The tasks include

  • Doing a preliminary dental exam
  • Performing a complete prophylaxis, including the removal of deposit, accretion, or stain from the surface of a tooth, or a restoration
  • Polishing a tooth or restoration
  • Charting cavities, restorations, missing teeth, periodontal conditions, and other features observed during the preliminary examination, prophylaxis, or polishing
  • Applying a medicinal agent to a tooth for a prophylactic purpose
  • Taking a dental X-ray
  • Applying sealants or fluoride agents

The state budget also allocated millions of dollars to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates ($14 million), fund new dental clinics in Southern Maryland and on the Upper Eastern Shore ($1.4 million), and establish a mobile school-based dental services program ($700,000).

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