Quality control, or just control?

Abstract

This article presents an editorial perspective on the dichotomy of state dental association/licensing boards' subjecting out-of-state oral health professionals to clinical board exams, while at the same time pursuing the possible introduction of preceptorship training for dental hygienists. Reciprocity and licensure to perform all functions for which the operator has been educated to competency are appropriate avenues to pursue. If licensing bodies are truly interested in quality control, then preceptorship should not be sought, because it is inconsistent with that goal. From an educational perspective, when dental assistants and dental hygienists are capable of obtaining licensure through this model, apprenticeship programs for dentists are logically the next step. Licensing bodies may then become redundant, and the professionalism of the oral healthcare community brought into question. Issues of reciprocity and preceptorship have nothing to do with quality control--they have to do with the outright control of one profession over another.