153.15 Dental hygienists — scope of term.

A licensed dental hygienist may perform those services which are educational, therapeutic, and preventive in nature which attain or maintain optimal oral health as determined by the board and may include but are not necessarily limited to complete oral prophylaxis, application of preventive agents to oral structures, exposure and processing of radiographs, administration of medicaments prescribed by a licensed dentist, obtaining and preparing nonsurgical, clinical and oral diagnostic tests for interpretation by the dentist, and preparation of preliminary written records of oral conditions for interpretation by the dentist. Such services, except educational services, shall be performed under supervision of a licensed dentist and in a dental office, a public or private school, public health agencies, hospitals, and the armed forces, but nothing herein shall be construed to authorize a dental hygienist to practice dentistry. Educational services shall be limited to assessing the need for, planning, implementing, and evaluating oral health education programs for individual patients and community groups; and conducting workshops and in-service training sessions on dental health for nurses, school personnel, institutional staff, community groups, and other agencies providing consultation and technical assistance for promotional, preventive, and educational services.

[C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §2571; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, §153.7; C71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §153.15]

2007 Acts, ch 10, §134; 2017 Acts, ch 41, §1

Referred to in §153.23