Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 63, Chapter 5.

This bill authorizes a dental hygienist to perform a dental hygiene assessment. This bill defines "dental hygiene assessment" as the comprehensive data collection, documentation, and analysis of a patient’s current health status; history of periodontal disease; medications; and risk factors in preparation for the supervising dentist to review, diagnose, and deliver treatment. This bill provides that prior to a dental examination by the supervising dentist in clinical, volunteer, and public health settings, a dental hygiene assessment must include extra oral or intra oral radiographs; charting of existing restorations and carious findings; and preventive care that may include prophylaxis, fluoride varnish, sealants, or silver diamine fluoride. Present law provides that certain persons, acts, practices and operations are exempt from the other provisions of the laws governing dentistry, including the following: (1) The application of dental sealants to the teeth of individuals in a setting under the direction of a state or local health department by licensed hygienists, without requiring an evaluation by a dentist prior to such application, under a protocol established by the state or a metropolitan health department; and (2) The application of topical fluoride to the teeth of individuals in a setting under the direction of a state or local health department by licensed hygienists, without requiring an evaluation by a dentist prior to such application, under a protocol established by the state or a metropolitan health department. This bill deletes the provisions described above in (1) and (2) from the list of persons, acts, practices, and operations that are exempt from the other provisions of the laws governing dentistry. The present law provisions governing continuing education requirements for dental hygienists provide that no more than 50 percent of such continuing education requirement may be earned from on-line or web-based courses. This bill adds that a live, interactive webinar will be considered to be in-person continuing education and will not be considered remote attendance of an online or web-based course. ON MARCH 30, 2022, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 1827, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 removes all of this bill's provisions except for the provision whereby live, interactive webinar will be considered to be in-person continuing education and will not be considered remote attendance of an online or web-based course, as discussed above in the bill summary.