Pennsylvania Dental Practice Act (Act 76 of 1933) and Board Regulations (49 Pa. Code Chapter 33)
Scope and sources
The Dental Law (Act 76 of 1933) is the statute; 49 Pa. Code Chapter 33 contains the State Board of Dentistry's regulations. The exam tests whether you can apply both: the statute defines the practice of dentistry and dental hygiene and delegates rulemaking; the regulations fill in supervision, licensure, infection control, and unprofessional conduct.
Core rules
- A dental hygienist may perform dental hygiene services only under a dentist's supervision and within a treatment plan the dentist has authorized. Hygiene services include prophylaxis, scaling and root planing, fluoride, sealants, and radiographs as allowed by regulation; they do not include diagnosis, prescribing, or irreversible restorative procedures.
- Supervision is not one thing. Regulations distinguish direct supervision (dentist on premises and available) from general supervision (dentist authorizes care but need not be present), and the setting and procedure determine which is required.
- The public health dental hygiene practitioner (PHDHP) is a limited exception: a hygienist with additional certification may deliver specified services in approved public health settings without a dentist on site, under a collaborative arrangement and within the scope set by regulation.
- The dentist remains responsible for the overall plan of care and for referring conditions beyond the hygienist's scope.
Worked example
A hygienist in a private practice wants to scale and root plan a patient with heavy calculus and 6-mm pockets. The dentist has examined the patient and written a periodontal plan. The hygienist may perform SRP under the required supervision and document findings. The hygienist may not independently diagnose "periodontitis" or prescribe an antibiotic; those acts exceed hygiene scope. If the same hygienist were a PHDHP seeing a patient in a qualifying public health clinic, the analysis would shift to the PHDHP setting and collaborative requirements, not to private-practice supervision.
Traps
Assuming any hygienist may practice without a dentist present; treating PHDHP authority as portable to any setting; and forgetting that a dentist's order must precede, not follow, the service.