2002 Minnesota Statutes

     150A.10 Allied dental personnel. 

    Subdivision 1.    Dental hygienists.  Any licensed 
 dentist, public institution, or school authority may obtain 
 services from a licensed dental hygienist.  Such licensed dental 
 hygienist may provide those services defined in section 150A.05, 
 subdivision 1a.  Such services shall not include the 
 establishment of a final diagnosis or treatment plan for a 
 dental patient.  Such services shall be provided under 
 supervision of a licensed dentist.  Any licensed dentist who 
 shall permit any dental service by a dental hygienist other than 
 those authorized by the board of dentistry, shall be deemed to 
 be violating the provisions of sections 150A.01 to 150A.12, and 
 any such unauthorized dental service by a dental hygienist shall 
 constitute a violation of sections 150A.01 to 150A.12.  

    Subd. 1a.    Limited authorization for dental hygienists. 
  (a) Notwithstanding subdivision 1, a dental hygienist 
 licensed under this chapter may be employed or retained by a 
 health care facility to perform dental hygiene services 
 described under paragraph (b) without the patient first being 
 examined by a licensed dentist if the dental hygienist: 

    (1) has two years practical clinical experience with a 
 licensed dentist within the preceding five years; and 

    (2) has entered into a collaborative agreement with a 
 licensed dentist that designates authorization for the services 
 provided by the dental hygienist. 

    (b) The dental hygiene services authorized to be performed 
 by a dental hygienist under this subdivision are limited to 
 removal of deposits and stains from the surfaces of the teeth, 
 application of topical preventive or prophylactic agents, 
 polishing and smoothing restorations, removal of marginal 
 overhangs, performance of preliminary charting, taking of 
 radiographs, and performance of root planing and soft-tissue 
 curettage.  The dental hygienist shall not place pit and fissure 
 sealants, unless the patient has been recently examined and the 
 treatment planned by a licensed dentist.  The dental hygienist 
 shall not perform injections of anesthetic agents or the 
 administration of nitrous oxide unless under the indirect 
 supervision of a licensed dentist.  The performance of dental 
 hygiene services in a health care facility is limited to 
 patients, students, and residents of the facility. 

    (c) A collaborating dentist must be licensed under this 
 chapter and may enter into a collaborative agreement with no 
 more than four dental hygienists.  The collaborative agreement 
 must include: 

    (1) consideration for medically compromised patients and 
 medical conditions for which a dental evaluation and treatment 
 plan must occur prior to the provision of dental hygiene 
 services; and 

    (2) a period of time in which an examination by a dentist 
 should occur. 

 The collaborative agreement must be maintained by the dentist 
 and the dental hygienist and must be made available to the board 
 upon request.  

    (d) For the purposes of this subdivision, a "health care 
 facility" is limited to a hospital; nursing home; home health 
 agency; group home serving the elderly, disabled, or juveniles; 
 state-operated facility licensed by the commissioner of human 
 services or the commissioner of corrections; and federal, state, 
 or local public health facility, community clinic, or tribal 
 clinic.  

    (e) For purposes of this subdivision, a "collaborative 
 agreement" means a written agreement with a licensed dentist who 
 authorizes and accepts responsibility for the services performed 
 by the dental hygienist.  The services authorized under this 
 subdivision and the collaborative agreement may be performed 
 without the presence of a licensed dentist and may be performed 
 at a location other than the usual place of practice of the 
 dentist or dental hygienist and without a dentist's diagnosis 
 and treatment plan, unless specified in the collaborative 
 agreement. 

    Subd. 2.    Dental assistants.  Every licensed dentist 
 who uses the services of any unlicensed person for the purpose 
 of assistance in the practice of dentistry shall be responsible 
 for the acts of such unlicensed person while engaged in such 
 assistance.  Such dentist shall permit such unlicensed assistant 
 to perform only those acts which are authorized to be delegated 
 to unlicensed assistants by the board of dentistry.  Such acts 
 shall be performed under supervision of a licensed dentist.  The 
 board may permit differing levels of dental assistance based 
 upon recognized educational standards, approved by the board, 
 for the training of dental assistants.  The board may also 
 define by rule the scope of practice of registered and 
 nonregistered dental assistants.  The board by rule may require 
 continuing education for differing levels of dental assistants, 
 as a condition to their registration or authority to perform 
 their authorized duties.  Any licensed dentist who shall permit 
 such unlicensed assistant to perform any dental service other 
 than that authorized by the board shall be deemed to be enabling 
 an unlicensed person to practice dentistry, and commission of 
 such an act by such unlicensed assistant shall constitute a 
 violation of sections 150A.01 to 150A.12. 

    Subd. 3.    Dental technicians.  Every licensed dentist 
 who uses the services of any unlicensed person, other than under 
 the dentist's supervision and within such dentist's own office, 
 for the purpose of constructing, altering, repairing or 
 duplicating any denture, partial denture, crown, bridge, splint, 
 orthodontic, prosthetic or other dental appliance, shall be 
 required to furnish such unlicensed person with a written work 
 order in such form as shall be prescribed by the rules of the 
 board; said work order shall be made in duplicate form, a 
 duplicate copy to be retained in a permanent file in the 
 dentist's office for a period of two years, and the original to 
 be retained in a permanent file for a period of two years by 
 such unlicensed person in that person's place of business.  Such 
 permanent file of work orders to be kept by such dentist or by 
 such unlicensed person shall be open to inspection at any 
 reasonable time by the board or its duly constituted agent. 

    HIST: 1969 c 974 s 10; 1976 c 263 s 9; 1986 c 444; 1996 c 273 
 s 3,4; 1Sp2001 c 9 art 2 s 5; 2002 c 379 art 1 s 113