During the 2022 legislative session, ISDS supported legislation that expanded the population of patients that dental assistants could perform coronal scaling above the gum line. This was part of an effort to address workforce shortages of dental hygienists in urban and rural underserved areas.

Under the new law, dental assistants may perform coronal scaling above the gum line on children 17 years and younger and who qualify under one of the following provisions: on Medicaid, uninsured, or whose family household income is not higher than 300% of the federal poverty level. For a household of four, that income level would be approximately $83,000 annually. The legislation also increased the training hours, from 16 hours to 32 hours needed, for dental assistants to provide this limited service.

Prior to the new law, dental assistants could perform coronal scaling above the gum line on children 12 years and younger and who qualified for one of the following provisions: on Medicaid, uninsured and whose family household income was not higher than 200% of the federal poverty level. Again, under the previous law, there was only 16 hours of training required.

Please note, the new law does not allow a dental assistant who only has 16 hours of education to perform coronal scaling above the gum on any patient.  Additional training is now required.

Training Hours

With the passage of the new law, all dental assistants who are performing coronal scaling above the gum line are required to have 32 hours of training.  As specified in the Act, if a dental assistant previously completed the original 16 hours of training then they need to complete an additional 16 hours of training to have the full total amount of 32 hours.  The additional hours will allow the dental assistant to meet the new statutory requirements as the old statutory provision was repealed.

Specific Training Requirements

Prior to the coronal scaling coursework, a dental assistant must have completed an approved coronal polishing class. The 32 hours of education is required to include instruction in both didactic and clinical manikin or human subject instruction.

All training programs shall include areas of study in the following areas:

• dental anatomy
• public health dentistry
• medical history
• dental emergencies
• managing the pediatric patient

Training programs are also required to include an outcome assessment examination that demonstrates competency. Additionally, the supervising dentist is required to observe and approve the completion of 6 full mouth supragingival scaling procedures unless the training was part of a Commission on Dental Accreditation approved dental assisting program. Finally, the training program must issue a certificate of completion of the program.

Additionally, any training courses provided under this requirement has to be submitted for review by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Therefore, if someone is taking a training class on this issue they will want to confirm with the continuing education provider that the class has been approved by the Department.