Dr. Derik RDH

My upcoming series “Seismic Strains” debuts in the next issue of RDH Magazine! Here’s the overview

My interview with Dr. Kelly Tanner 🤓

Your license is the same. Your scope is not. Why?

Dr. Derik J. Sven just finished a doctorate at The George Washington University that mapped the dental hygiene scope of practice across all 50 states. The determining factor was not political party. It was regional culture. That one finding reframes every conversation about hygiene burnout, career ceilings, and why the same degree lands so differently depending on your zip code.

This week on The Dental Handoff, he also breaks down:
• Why the dental association's pilot project was a customer survey, not a health study
• Why he is applying to law school and why you might want to consider it too
• What 2,200 RDH-JDs could realistically do for the profession's legislative future

Link in bio. New episodes every week. https://youtu.be/xHg1aJONP8E

Thank you Dentaltown for starting this important conversation!

Rethinking Hygienists' Role in Oral Health

The push for dental hygienist autonomy is one of the most debated topics in dentistry right now, and this Hygienetown Hot Topics piece doesn't shy away from the hard questions.

At the center of the debate: dental hygiene exists to prevent disease, but hygienists in most states cannot practice without a dentist's permission. Supervision laws are framed as patient safety measures by supporters, while critics argue they function primarily as economic barriers that restrict access to care, particularly for underserved populations.

The article also explores the structural tension between prevention and production, the workforce shortage in hygiene, the role of antitrust law in these discussions, and what independent preventive practice models already operating in the US and internationally have shown about patient outcomes.
Advocates for autonomy aren't calling for the elimination of dentistry. They're calling for clarity on scopes, roles, and accountability.

This one is worth sharing with your whole team.

👉 https://bit.ly/4cnW9qC

💬 Where do you stand on expanded hygienist autonomy, and what would it look like in practice for your office?

Please share across your channels—the historical record of organized dentistry should never be ignored—especially when the same tactics are being employed against our profession.

It is the very definition of insanity to do the same thing and expect a different result.

Link in comments

Repost if this resonates.

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes warns us of the danger in accepting falsehoods simply because authority insists it is true. In the story, an emperor parades in “magnificent” garments that do not exist—while the crowd, too fearful to contradict, applauds what is not there.

Dentistry finds itself in a similar moment. The public has been persuaded that dentists, by virtue of their degree, are fully prepared to serve the public and uniquely qualified to supervise others in oral health. The facts tell a different story.

Organized dentistry has invited scrutiny by clinging to outdated education models and misguided workforce “solutions.” The idea that any dentist can train anyone off the street to perform the complex, nuanced, preventive care that defines dental hygiene is not only absurd—it is a dangerous regression of health policy.

This critique is grounded in research, evidence, and candid conversations with dentists and periodontists in academia—who, under anonymity, acknowledged serious shortcomings in dental curricula. Every year, new graduates emerge legally permitted to perform procedures they have never demonstrated proficiency in.

To be clear, there are excellent schools and outstanding dentists who rise above these deficiencies. But the sheer variability in training makes it impossible to justify blanket policies that presume all graduates are competent supervisors of hygienists or qualified trainers of assistants.

This scrutiny also dismantles the supposed need for dentist supervision of hygienists, exposing it as nothing more than a false premise. Hygienists hold no surgical scope that poses a risk to the public; the only threat lies in dismantling the antiquated system that props up a business model dentists refuse to release.

The myopic, almost bizarre obsession with controlling dental hygienists has nothing to do with patient safety and everything to do with power and profit. It must end. Patient safety, public trust, and professional integrity demand that these myths be exposed and dismantled.

And for those on the other side: the final installment of this series will lay out an ethical, evidence-based framework for pathways to dental hygiene autonomy—one that will elevate educational standards and raise the threshold for dentistry itself.

Just as in Andersen’s tale, someone must finally say what has been obvious all along: Where are the emperor’s clothes?

(Link in bio)

💰 “Follow the money.”
That isn’t just a famous line—it’s the first rule of health reform.

Any reform effort that ignores economics is destined to fail. Public health policy must be built on financial viability, not just clinical merit. Autonomy for dental hygienists delivers both—and should be treated as a strategic investment, not a professional concession.

In contrast, the OPA model is what happens when financial desperation drives policy. It’s not reform—it’s regression.
☠️ Lowering standards.
💸 Protecting profit margins.
🧱 Reinforcing gatekeeping.

Part III of Breaking Chains takes a hard look at dentistry’s economic architecture—and reveals exactly who benefits from maintaining the status quo.

📉 Real reform means rejecting bandaid proposals like the OPA and embracing scalable, ethical, and evidence-based workforce solutions.