HB 2547 Summary

• Allows dental hygienists to provide dental hygiene services under an affiliated practice relationship with a dentist, with services limited to specified healthcare settings including health care facilities, long-term care facilities, public health agencies, schools, and nonprofit organizations.

• Requires dental hygienists seeking affiliated practice status to hold an active license in good standing and have completed at least 500 hours of dental hygiene practice in each of the two years immediately preceding the affiliated practice relationship.

• Mandates written affiliated practice agreements between dentists and dental hygienists that specify practice settings, services provided, standing orders, conditions for administering local anesthesia and root planing, and circumstances requiring dentist consultation.

• Permits affiliated practice dental hygienists to perform all authorized dental hygiene procedures except diagnostic procedures reserved for dentists and administration of nitrous oxide, without requiring dentist presence or prior examination unless specified in the agreement.

• Increases the maximum number of affiliated practice dental hygienists that one dentist may supervise from three to six at any one time.