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Dental hygienists play a critical role in delivering preventive oral health care, helping patients maintain good oral health and preventing more serious and costly dental problems. Yet in many states, laws and regulations governing the dental hygiene profession can limit where and how hygienists practice—potentially restricting patients' access to essential preventive services.

A new study from the Oral Health Workforce Research Center, part of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany, examines these regulatory barriers and identifies opportunities to better leverage the dental hygiene workforce to expand access to oral health care.

The study, recently published in the Journal of Dental Hygiene, explores how changes in dental hygiene scope of practice, care delivery models and technology have affected the dental hygiene profession over the past decade. Researchers conducted interviews with five national dental hygiene leaders to identify persistent barriers to expanding the role of dental hygienists and strategies for strengthening their ability to provide preventive oral health services.

"Dental hygienists have an important role to play in expanding access to preventive oral health care, particularly in communities where access to dental services is limited," said UAlbany's Theekshana Fernando, lead author on the study and research scientist at the Center for Health Workforce Studies.

"Our findings suggest that regulatory and payment policies need to evolve alongside advances in education, technology and models of care so that dental hygienists can practice to the full extent of their training and contribute more effectively to improving oral health."

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