How To Train Your Dragon (Next Clinical Team Member

A dental office can be like the Viking village of Berk - frequently attacked by dragons. Lately, the most dreaded dragon is the need to replace a team member.

Spoiler alert if you haven’t viewed How to Train Your Dragon (2010). Hiccup, the awkward fifteen-year-old son of the village chieftain, is deemed too weak to fight the dragons. His father enters him into a dragon-fighting class. His failures in the class send him into the forest for consolation where he finds Night Fury (he renamed Toothless) living in a cave - a rare and dangerous dragon Hiccup had previously fought, but only injured. Hiccup uses his lived experience from working in the Berk village blacksmith shop and some ingenuity in devising a prosthetic fin for Toothless, so he can once again fly. A lasting friendship ensues and in time Hiccup and Toothless destroy the nest of dragons which has threatened to extinguish Berk. For Hiccup this regains the trust of Astrid, his crush. Sounds like some Viking dentistry with an expanded scope of practice?

Finding your next clinical team member can be a challenge. Especially difficult is determining what compensation level will attract good candidates. Consideration must be given to how that salary may affect the pay of current team members in an environment of inflated supply costs, retention raises, and declining dental plan reimbursements.

Here’s a highly endorsed solution. Commit time on a regular basis to participate in one of the clinical dental educational programs which exist across the state – both publically funded and private. Many compensate part-time, and adjunct faculty.

The Utah System of Higher Education has four hygienist (RDH) training programs at degree granting institutions (Salt Lake Community College, Utah Tech University, and Utah Valley University, Weber State University). Additionally there are four Technical Colleges with dental assisting programs (Bridgerland Tech, Ogden-Weber Tech, Davis Tech, Dixie Tech). Private hygienist programs include the Utah College of Dental Hygiene and Fortis College. There are numerous private dental assisting programs in our communities across the state.

An ongoing need at all these institutions is for dentists to be available to provide “general supervision” for review of medical histories, order radiographs and determine both restorative and periodontal treatment plans.

“General supervision” means that the supervising dentist is available for consultation regarding work the supervising dentist has authorized, without regard as to whether the supervising dentist is located on the same premises as the person being supervised. Utah Code 58-69-102 Definitions

Urgently needed are additional dentists at Hygienist training programs to be in-person for “indirect supervision” when local anesthetic is being administered to a student or a patient who needs scaling/root planning.

“Indirect supervision” means that the supervising dentist is present within the facility in which the person being supervised is providing services and is available to provide immediate face-to-face communication with the person being supervised. Utah Code 58-69-102 Definitions

“A dental hygienist licensed under this chapter may only practice dental hygiene: (3) under the supervision of a dentist, for an employee leasing company or temporary personnel service company providing employees to a dentist or other person lawfully providing dental services:

(a) under the indirect supervision of a dentist licensed under this chapter at any time the dental hygienist is administering an anesthetic or analgesia (c) under the general supervision of a dentist licensed under this chapter, and the practice is conducted outside of the

office of the supervising dentist, if: (i) the dental hygiene work performed is authorized by the supervising dentist as a part of and in accordance with the supervising dentist’s current treatment plan for the patient (ii) no anesthetic or analgesia is used (iii) the supervising dentist has determined the patient’s general health and oral health are so that the dental hygiene work can be performed under general supervision and with an acceptable level of risk or injury as determined by the supervising dentist; (iv) the supervising dentist accepts responsibility for the dental hygiene work performed under general supervision” Utah Code 58-69-801. Dental hygienist --

Limitations on practice.

A “profession” is not a trade or industry. Historically there have been only three recognized: divinity, medicine, and law. A profession has three distinguishing components: 1) a group who adheres to ethical standards, 2) those who possess special knowledge and skills derived from research, education and training, and 3) those who apply knowledge and these skills in the interest of others.

I believe we as dental professionals have not only a responsibility for the quality of care in our practices, but