The Board of Dentistry exists to ensure the quality of dental care in Virginia and to protect the public from negligence, fraud, malpractice and unethical conduct of those rendering dental care. To that end, laws exist that govern the rules, regulations, and expectations for dental providers and the means to enforce and at times discipline infractions of the law. Therefore, it is inconsistent with the mission and purpose of the BOD to refrain from establishing the same structure, guidelines, and practice expectations on this newly created role of "scaling dental assistant". Additionally, VA legislatures were informed that the BOD would establish and regulate this new dental staff position, and both HB 970 and SB 178 stated this clearly. As a regulatory Board, you must honor your commitment to the current dental practitioners, the public consumer, and to the VA lawmakers who were influenced by the wording of those bills. I urge you to establish clear definitions, rules and regulations, scope of practice, standardized training and disciplinary consequences as needed, just as you have historically and presently do for dentists, hygienists, and assistants.