Gov. Hochul signed NYSDA dental hygiene bill to allow dental hygienists to use nitrous oxide and local infiltration anesthesia to assist dentists with all dental procedures.
On May 9, 2022, Governor Hochul signed into law, as Chapter 198 of the Laws of 2022, the NYSDA dental hygiene bill to allow dental hygienists to use nitrous oxide and local infiltration anesthesia to assist dentists with all dental procedures. A copy of the new law is below. The law is effective immediately.
New York State Education Law:
§ 6605-b. Dental hygiene restricted local infiltration anesthesia/nitrous oxide analgesia certificate.
1. A dental hygienist shall not administer or monitor nitrous oxide analgesia or local infiltration anesthesia in the practice of dental hygiene without a dental hygiene restricted local infiltration anesthesia/nitrous oxide analgesia certificate and except under the personal supervision of a dentist and in accordance with regulations promulgated by the commissioner. Personal supervision, for purposes of this section, means that the supervising dentist remains in the dental office where the local infiltration anesthesia or nitrous oxide analgesia services are being performed, personally authorizes and prescribes the use of local infiltration anesthesia or nitrous oxide analgesia for the patient and, before dismissal of the patient, personally examines the condition of the patient after the use of local infiltration anesthesia or nitrous oxide analgesia is completed. It is professional misconduct for a dentist to fail to provide the supervision required by this section, and any dentist found guilty of such misconduct under the procedures prescribed in section sixty-five hundred ten of this title shall be subject to the penalties prescribed in section sixty-five hundred eleven of this title.