§ 5-31.1-6.1 — § 5-31.1-6.1. Dental hygienists and dental assistants.

§ 5-31.1-6.1. Dental hygienists and dental assistants.

Dentists licensed pursuant to § 5-31.1-6 may supervise and delegate to any dental hygienist licensed pursuant to § 5-31.1-6, working under the dentist's general supervision and who is employed on a regular basis by such dentists, any procedures that he or she may deem advisable; including initial oral-health-screening assessments and other procedures specified under section 13 (or any comparable or successor section) of the rules and regulations pertaining to dentists and dental hygienists promulgated from time to time by the department of health, and any such dental hygienists may engage in the practice of dental hygiene under the responsibility of the supervising dentists outside of the dentists' office in order to render to residents of nursing facilities licensed pursuant to chapter 17 of title 23, whether or not such residents are patients of record of the supervising dentist, without the on-site direct supervision of a dentist licensed pursuant to § 5-31.1-6, those dental services, procedures, and duties that he or she has been educated to perform and that are authorized by the board of examiners in dentistry. Dental hygienists working under general supervision in nursing facilities shall provide documentation of initial oral health screening assessments to the supervising dentist and to the licensed nursing facility for appropriate follow-up assessment and treatment, as needed.

Legislative History

P.L. 2004, ch. 292, § 1; P.L. 2004, ch. 475, § 1; P.L. 2006, ch. 325, § 1; P.L. 2006, ch. 448, § 1.