2011 California Code
Business and Professions Code
DIVISION 2. HEALING ARTS [500 - 4999.122]
ARTICLE 7. Dental Auxiliaries
Section 1752.4

(a) A registered dental assistant may perform all of the following duties:

(1) All duties that a dental assistant is allowed to perform.

(2) Mouth-mirror inspections of the oral cavity, to include charting of obvious lesions, existing restorations, and missing teeth.

(3) Apply and activate bleaching agents using a nonlaser light-curing device.

(4) Use of automated caries detection devices and materials to gather information for diagnosis by the dentist.

(5) Obtain intraoral images for computer-aided design (CAD), milled restorations.

(6) Pulp vitality testing and recording of findings.

(7) Place bases, liners, and bonding agents.

(8) Chemically prepare teeth for bonding.

(9) Place, adjust, and finish direct provisional restorations.

(10) Fabricate, adjust, cement, and remove indirect provisional restorations, including stainless steel crowns when used as a provisional restoration.

(11) Place post-extraction dressings after inspection of the surgical site by the supervising licensed dentist.

(12) Place periodontal dressings.

(13) Dry endodontically treated canals using absorbent paper points.

(14) Adjust dentures extra-orally.

(15) Remove excess cement from surfaces of teeth with a hand instrument.

(16) Polish coronal surfaces of the teeth.

(17) Place ligature ties and archwires.

(18) Remove orthodontic bands.

(19) All duties that the board may prescribe by regulation.

(b) A registered dental assistant may only perform the following additional duties if he or she has completed a board-approved registered dental assistant educational program in those duties, or if he or she has provided evidence, satisfactory to the board, of having completed a board-approved course in those duties.

(1) Remove excess cement with an ultrasonic scaler from supragingival surfaces of teeth undergoing orthodontic treatment.

(2) The allowable duties of an orthodontic assistant permitholder as specified in Section 1750.3. A registered dental assistant shall not be required to complete further instruction in the duties of placing ligature ties and archwires, removing orthodontic bands, and removing excess cement from tooth surfaces with a hand instrument.

(3) The allowable duties of a dental sedation assistant permitholder as specified in Section 1750.5.

(4) The application of pit and fissure sealants.

(c) Except as provided in Section 1777, the supervising licensed dentist shall be responsible for determining whether each authorized procedure performed by a registered dental assistant should be performed under general or direct supervision.

(d) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2010.

(Repealed (in Sec. 32) and added by Stats. 2008, Ch. 499, Sec. 23. Effective January 1, 2009. Section operative January 1, 2010, by its own provisions.)