Explanatory note

These regulations contain in Parts II to V general provisions governing the enrolment of persons as dental auxiliaries, the approval of courses of training and examinations qualifying for enrolment and the machinery for removing a name from the roll and for restoring it.

Parts VI and VII provide for the continued establishment of specific classes of dental auxiliaries to be known as “dental hygienists” and “dental therapists” and regulations 23 and 27 specify the kinds of dental work dental hygienists and dental therapists may undertake and the conditions under which they may undertake such work.

The regulations consolidate, with amendments, the Dental Auxiliaries Regulations 1968, and the Dental Auxiliaries (Amendment) Regulations 1974, 1978, 1979 and 1985. In addition to a number of technological changes, the principal amendments of the earlier regulations are the following:

• References in the regulations to the giving of advice on matters relating to oral hygiene by dental hygienists and dental therapists have been removed.

• The circumstances in which dental therapists may carry out dental work under local infiltration analgesia have been widened to cover simple dental fillings and other procedures.