For patients across Arizona, a routine dental checkup has become a gamble. Senate Bill 1124, signed into law in April 2025, created a new category called “Oral Preventive Assistants” with a drastically abbreviated training pathway for dental assistants to perform scaling and prophylaxis procedures. The difference in educational requirements is substantial.

A registered dental hygienist accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation completes nearly 3,000 hours of comprehensive education covering pharmacology, anatomy, periodontics, dental radiology, microbiology, oral pathology and the clinical application of preventive and therapeutic care. The dental hygiene curriculum prepares these professionals to assess and care for patients across the spectrum — from routine preventive proced

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