re: Is it legal for dental hygienists to open a teeth cleaning practice?

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There is no scientific basis for the twice yearly cleaning protocol.

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better safe that sorry though....

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If he never goes he could have a mouth full of cavities now.

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Yep. I used to think that all cavities caused pain, so I assumed that no pain=no cavities.

I found out the hard way one dental visit that that is not true....

I had someone argue recently that fluoride does no good and causes cancer. I told him need to ask all the people around who lived in the days before flouridated water how many cavities they have. And while your at it ask the Brits how no cleaning is working for them.

C.J. Richard, a Walker dentist and local representative of the Louisiana Fluoridation Advisory Board, says when the LSU School of Dentistry was temporarily relocated to Baton Rouge after Hurricane Katrina, the faculty found the middle-class population of Baton Rouge seemed to have more cavities than poor people from New Orleans. New Orleans, unlike Baton Rouge, has fluoridated water.

No wonder I've been getting cavities, I'm taking my Skittles and moving to New Orleans.

Ok cool, I got one with my last cleaning and didn't know if I really needed it or not. But only $25 so figured why not. With my history of needing lots of dental work(I've had several root canals/crowns/cavities) figured it couldn't hurt to get it.

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The idea of a cleaning is just to get patients in the door so the dentist can check them out for cavities or other oral problems.

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Exactly. The cleaning is done at a relatively small profit to the dentist. The cleaning (from the dental business perspective) is simply a marketing tool to get you in for more expensive procedures. No dentist office could stay open if all they did was cleanings. It's like how an attorney might offer free or cheap advice at an initial consultation in hopes of you using him if your issue needs more work.

Sadly, you are right.

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Dentists would fall over in the street with anger and vitriol.
Then they would hire lobbyists (as cheaply as possible, of course) to be sure such a highly logical thing would never happen.

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I think you might get a little push back from the old guard and that would be an expected response initially. I don't think it would take very long for them, having considered their collective experience with hygienists,to realize that it wouldn't cause too much disruption in their practices.

There are very few hygienists that have the business acumen necessary to run a dental practice, let alone, a practice limited to dental hygiene. If they do their due diligence, they would quickly understand that the current fee schedule would not allow for business success.

The ready, fire, aim type would have an impossible time getting the capital necessary to do a decently appointed dental hygiene office and probably get laughed out of the bankers office.

One question I have is would they require malpractice insurance and what would the cost be?

If they are ever able to practice independently, I could see myself networking with several hygienists and running an emergency dental clinic as I enjoy solving patients immediate dental needs and it can be very profitable.

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Will your hyg check for oral cancer and is she trained well enough to know one when she sees it?

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Mine does. She does a cancer screening before the cleaning. Cleanes and then the Dentist comes in and checks her work and chit chats. I wouldnt want to go to a place that only cleans teeth, but then again I have good dental ins. They pay for 2 cleanings a yr per person, my premiums are less than the 8 cleanings we use a family yearly.