STAND. COM. REP. NO. 692

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 779
                                        S.D. 2




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which
was referred S.B. No. 779, S.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DENTAL HYGIENISTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish educational
requirements for the administration of local anesthesia by dental
hygienists, establish documentation required for dental board
certification of a hygienist to administer anesthesia, and to
allow the Board of Dental Examiners to adopt rules for
educational requirements for anesthesia. 

     The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Board
of Dental Examiners, and the Hawaii Dental Hygienists'
Association presented testimony in support of the measure.  The
Dental Association and eight individuals, though not present at
the hearing, submitted written testimony in support of the
measure.

     Two individuals presented testimony in opposition to the
measure.  Sixty-seven individuals, though not present at the
hearing, submitted written testimony in opposition to the
measure.  An individual not present at the hearing submitted
comments on the measure. 

     Your Committee finds that this measure establishes strict
educational requirements for dental hygienists seeking
certification to administer intra-oral block anesthesia.  In

 
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addition to specific courses of instruction, the educational
requirements include successful passage of an examination, a
minimum of thirty-nine hours of clinical experience, and a
minimum of fifty successful injections.  

     The anesthesia educational requirements are over and above
the educational requirements that must be met by an applicant
seeking registration as a dental hygienist in this State.  A
prerequisite to registration is proof of graduation from an
accredited two-year dental hygiene program.  An accredited
program includes over two thousand hours of college-level
classroom study, six hundred of which are dedicated to supervised
clinical dental hygiene instruction, and four hundred of which
are classroom study hours in the basic sciences, including
microbiology, chemistry, pathology, anatomy, physiology,
pharmacology, and nutrition.  

     Your Committee finds that the additional education and
certification requirements established in this measure will help
to ensure that the administration of anesthesia is undertaken
only by licensed dental hygienists who are properly trained and
who have demonstrated their competence.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the educational requirements
          established in the measure pertain to an applicant
          seeking certification to administer intra-oral block
          anesthesia;

     (3)  Making the categories of study required of an applicant
          seeking certification to administer intra-oral block
          anesthesia mandatory;

     (4)  Allowing the Board of Dental Examiners to adopt
          administrative rules relating to the education and
          certification of licensed dental hygienists to
          administer intra-oral block anesthesia that, upon their
          adoption, will supersede the pertinent statutory
          provisions;

     (5)  Deleting new language relating to proof of an
          applicant's certification in the administration of
          intra-oral infiltration local anesthesia and intra-oral
          block anesthesia that would have affected the present
          practice of the Board of Dental Examiners to approve
          applicants for the licensure examination; and

     (6)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments.

 
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     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to
this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of S.B. No. 779, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and
recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto
as S.B. No. 779, S.D. 2.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Commerce and
                                   Consumer Protection,



                                   ______________________________
                                   BRIAN KANNO, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Co-Chair

 
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