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This section contains the Dental Hygienists Regulation and the British Columbia College of Oral Health Professionals’ Bylaws, as well as Forms and Schedules. This page also contains other resources, such as Root of the Matter information sheets.
To ensure an appropriate standard of professional conduct in their practice, Registrants must be familiar with the provisions of the Bylaws.
Oral health professionals are reminded that they are ultimately accountable and responsible for understanding and interpreting any limits or conditions that might appear in Ministry Regulations and BCCOHP Bylaws regarding restricted titles and scope of practice. Please reach out to BCCOHP’s Professional Practice team if you have any questions regarding the provision of any aspect of practice or defined restricted activities.
Regulation | Schedules | |
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In accordance with section 12(2) of the Health Professions Act, registrants are required to maintain compliance with the Dental Hygienists Regulation. | To ensure an appropriate standard of professional conduct in their practice, registrants must be familiar with the provisions of the Bylaws. | Included in this section are Schedules A – I as referenced in the College Bylaws. |
In accordance with section 12(2) of the Health Professions Act, registrants are required to maintain compliance with the Dental Hygienists Regulation.
1 – Definitions
In this regulation:
“dental hygiene” means the health profession in which a person provides the services of
(a) assessing the status of teeth and adjacent tissues, and
(b) providing preventive and therapeutic treatment for teeth and adjacent tissues;
“dental hygiene diagnosis” means a clinical judgement made by a registrant of an individual’s oral health condition to determine whether
(a) the condition can be ameliorated or resolved by services that the registrant is authorized to provide, or
(b) consultation with, or transfer of responsibility for care to, another professional is necessary or appropriate;
“dentist” means a person who is authorized under the Act to practise the designated health profession of dentistry;
“prescription” has the same meaning as in the Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act;
“substance” includes air and water but excludes a drug specified in Schedule I, IA, II or IV of the Drug Schedules Regulation.
2 – Designation
The name “British Columbia College of Oral Health Professionals” is the name of the college established under section 15(1) of the Health Professions Act for dental hygiene.
3 – Reserved Title
The title “dental hygienist” is reserved for exclusive use by registrants.
4 – Scope of Practice
A dental hygienist may practise dental hygiene.
5 – Restricted Activities
(1) A registrant in the course of practising dental hygiene may do all of the following:
(a) make a dental hygiene diagnosis identifying gingivitis or periodontitis as the cause of the signs or symptoms of an
individual;
(b) perform scaling, dental debridement or root planing on the surfaces of the teeth for the purpose of preventing or treating an oral health condition;
(c) administer a substance by irrigation for the purpose of preventing or treating an oral health condition;
(d) reduce a complete dislocation of a temporomandibular joint using manual therapy.
(2) If standards, limits or conditions have been established under section 19 (1)(k) or (l) of the Act respecting the activity, a registrant in the course of practising dental hygiene may, during assessment and for diagnostic or imaging purposes, apply
(a) intra-oral X-rays, or
(b) extra-oral X-rays for the purpose of implementing an authorization, issued by a person who is authorized under the Act to apply extra-oral X-rays, to do so in respect of a named individual.
(3) Subject to subsection (4), a registrant in the course of practising
dental hygiene may administer a drug specified in Schedule I or II of the Drug Schedules Regulation for the purpose of
(a) treating an oral health condition, if administration is by topical application or irrigation, or
(b) providing local anaesthesia,
(i) if administration is by injection or topical application, and
(ii) if, before providing the service, the registrant has successfully completed a certification program established, required or approved under the bylaws to ensure that registrants are qualified and competent to provide that service.
(4) A registrant in the course of practising dental hygiene may not administer a drug for which a prescription is required under the Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act unless the patient has a prescription for the drug.
(5) Only a registrant who is a dental hygienist may provide a service that includes the performance of an activity set out in this section.
6 – Limitations or conditions on services
(1) In this section, “private dental hygiene practice” means the practice of dental hygiene in circumstances where, ordinarily, a dentist is not on site or immediately available.
(2) A registrant who is a dental hygienist may not engage in private dental hygiene practice unless standards, limits or conditions respecting private dental hygiene practice have first been established under section 19 (1) (k) or (l) of the Act.
(3) A registrant who engages in private dental hygiene practice must, in the course of providing dental hygiene services to a patient, recommend that the patient be examined by a dentist unless the dental hygienist
(a) has reason to believe that the patient has recently been examined by a dentist, or
(b) has recently recommended to the patient that the patient be examined by a dentist.
(4) A registrant must not perform permanent restoration procedures.
(5) A registrant may perform the restricted activity described in sections 5 (1) (d) only if dislocation occurs in the course of practising dental hygiene.
7 – Patient Relations Program
The college is designated for the purposes of section 16 (2) (f) of the Health Professions Act.
8 – Health Profession Corporations
Part 4 of the Health Professions Act applies to dental hygiene.
[en. B.C. Reg.276/2008.]
[Provisions of the Health Professions Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 183, relevant to the enactment of this regulation: section 12 (2)]