Arizona oral preventive assistants bill becomes law

Dental assistants now have a pathway to become oral preventive assistants in Arizona after Gov. Katie Hobbs signed Senate Bill 1124 into law.  

Oral preventive assistants, who are also referred to as scaling assistants, are expanded function dental assistants who provide preventive dental care services to patients under direct supervision of a dentist or dental hygienist. Services include removing plaque, calculus and stains with scalers or ultrasonic scaling devices on patients who have already received an evaluation from a dentist or hygienist. Oral preventive assistants can only practice on periodontally health patients or those with localized mild gingivitis.  

The advent of oral preventive assistants could help address access to care and workforce issues, increasing clinics’ capacity to treat more advanced periodontal problems by allowing dentists and hygienists to spend more clinic time treating more serious problems.  

Dental assistants can become oral preventive assistants by completing a board-approved preventive assistant training course that includes at least 120 hours of didactic and clinical instruction with patients.  

Before taking the course, the dental assistant must hold a current certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation; hold a board-approved certification for both coronal polishing and radiography; and either hold a national board certification in dental assisting or have completed an accredited dental assisting program. 

In addition to Arizona, oral preventive assistants exist in Kansas, and in Illinois, where they are allowed to scale on healthy pediatric Medicaid patients. Missouri implemented an oral preventive assistant pilot program Dec. 1, 2024, with approximately 20 trained OPA’s currently serving patients.  

Regina Cobb, D.D.S., executive director of the Arizona Dental Association, said the passage of this legislation will address the ongoing workforce shortage facing the state.  

“The workforce shortage has been as issue for the last decade and was accentuated by the pandemic. The passage of S.B. 1124 is a huge step forward in addressing this issue,” Dr Cobb said. “The oral preventive assistant is a way to fill in the workforce gap as well as provide an additional career path in dentistry.”