UPDATE ON GENERAL ASSEMBLY WORKFORCE MEASURES
The 2026 Virginia General Assembly took action on several measures to support pathways to dental careers and help address workforce shortages. To help Virginia dentists understand what these measures mean for their offices and team members, the VDA has put together some resources and will continue adding to them throughout the year. The three main actions the General Assembly took relate to budget funding, permitting experienced dental assistants to become credentialed to supragingivally scale teeth, and permitting internationally educated dentists who meet certain criteria to apply to the Virginia Board of Dentistry for a license to practice dental hygiene.
While the laws go into effect July 1, this DOES NOT permit an individual in your practice to immediately begin providing new patient care services.
The Board of Dentistry will be developing regulations for the internationally educated dentist pathway, and advised at their June 12 meeting that they expect to take up the final regulations on December 4, 2026, after which they expect a period of executive review.
The Board of Dentistry is not involved in the process for supragingival scaling and coronal polishing certification under the legislation passed by the General Assembly, and the certification is not issued by the Board.
However, it is incumbent on any dentist employing a dental assistant who pursues certification to comply with the requirements of the law.
There are three pathways under the dental assistant legislation, detailed in “Next Steps for Virginia Dental Workforce Bills.”
Below, we are sharing some additional resources that can help dentists understand what is and is not included in the law, and an interest form for dental assistants who would like to pursue certification through the VDA's "Dental Assistant Scaling Certificate," expected late Q4 2026.
Dental Assistant Scaling Certificate Interest Form
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
