LawAtlas releases map of dental hygienists requirements

LawAtlas.org has released a map that shows dental hygienist licensing requirements, authority, and supervision requirements across the U.S.

The map examines laws across 50 states and the District of Columbia, and clarifies the varied national landscape of laws that govern the scope of practice for dental hygienists, according the Public Health Law Research, a program dedicated to legal and policy surveillance.

State laws and regulations define which oral health treatments may be performed by dental hygienists and often address where the treatments may be performed, under what supervision, and other requirements, such as licenses or education level.

Additionally, many states have created classification levels that distinguish among requirements. In many cases, the classification levels were created in an attempt to limit the barriers to access. Under these classifications, dental hygienists with additional education or experience are allowed to perform certain services.

The majority of states (44) have at least one classification for dental hygienists, with two states, California and West Virginia, having as many as three. Seventeen states have laws that expressly prohibit dental hygienists from practicing independently, the group said.

LawAtlas has two components: LawAtlas.org, which publicly displays the law and legal datasets through reports and interactive maps; and the WorkBench, the content management system used to produce the datasets. WorkBench is the only software system designed especially for collecting, coding, and displaying legal data.