Minister Bruins of healthcare, welfare and sports wants to expand the service provision of dental hygienists

• Press Release
• July 2018
• Rotterdam - the Netherlands

Minister Bruins of healthcare, welfare, and sports want to expand the service provision of dental hygienists without the supervision or referral of dentists. These new services will start on January 1st 2020 and include procedures such as anesthesia, radiography, and primary cavity treatment that were originally, only performed by dentists. Minister Bruins has made the following comment:

“It makes sense to utilise people according to what they have been trained to do because we need everyone in oral care, from hygienists to dentists. Therethrough, dentists have more room for more complex dental care.”

This new policy will be followed closely as it is experimental and the proof is needed concerning the increased efficiency of the distribution of capacity in dental healthcare. In the case of increased efficiency in the sector without the loss of quality for patients, the experiment will be seen as successful and more independence for hygienists concerning such procedures will be considered for future policy implementation.