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                       ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6234

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State of Washington              52nd Legislature             1992 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Health & Long‑Term Care (originally sponsored by Senators West, M. Kreidler, Johnson and Wojahn)

Read first time 02/07/92.Granting temporary licenses to dental hygienists licensed in another state.

     AN ACT Relating to granting temporary licenses to dental hygienists licensed in another state; adding a new section to chapter 18.29 RCW; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 18.29 RCW to read as follows:

     (1) A person holding a valid license and currently engaged in active practice in another state shall be granted a temporary license without examination required by this chapter.  The term of the temporary license is eighteen months and is nonrenewable.  The secretary shall require the applicant to:  (a) File with the secretary documentation certifying that the applicant is licensed to practice in another state; (b) file with the secretary documentation certifying that the applicant has graduated from an accredited dental hygiene school approved by the secretary; (c) provide information as the secretary deems necessary pertaining to the conditions and criteria of the uniform disciplinary act, chapter 18.130 RCW, and to demonstrate to the secretary a knowledge of Washington state law pertaining to the practice of dental hygiene; (d) pay any required fees; and (e) meet requirements for asepsis and AIDS education.

     (2) A dental hygienist practicing with a temporary license granted under this section shall have the authority to perform hygiene procedures that are limited to:

     (a) Oral inspection and measuring of periodontal pockets;

     (b) Patient education in oral hygiene;

     (c) Taking intra-oral and extra-oral radiographs;

     (d) Applying topical preventive or prophylactic agents;

     (e) Polishing and smoothing restorations;

     (f) Oral prophylaxis and removal of deposits and stains from the surface of the teeth;

     (g) Recording health histories;

     (h) Taking and recording blood pressure and vital signs;

     (i) Performing subgingival and supragingival scaling; and

     (j) Root planing.

     (3) A dental hygienist practicing with a temporary license shall in no event perform the following dental hygiene operations or services:

     (a) Give injections of local anesthetic;

     (b) Place restorations into the cavity prepared by a licensed dentist and thereafter carve, contour, and adjust contacts and reclusion of the restoration; or

     (c) Soft tissue curettage.

     (4) For the purposes of this section active practice means five hundred sixty hours of practice in the preceding thirty months.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.      This act shall take effect on July 1, 1992.