ATTORNEY ON LAW
NYSDA Records Impressive Wins in Albany Legislatively speaking, it was a very good year for the Association.
F
Lance Plunkett, J.D., LL.M.
ollowing some lean legislative years due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), this year NYSDA enjoyed the most spectacular legislative session it’s had in the last 15 years. Three pieces of legislation that were key NYSDA priorities and no fewer than 10 major successes in the New York State Budget made for a very successful legislative session. The session ended early in the morning of June 4 when the New York State Assembly finally adjourned. The Senate had adjourned very late a day earlier. With multiple legislative success stories, it is hard to know where to begin to recount them all. So, let us start with the standalone legislative bills that passed. First is A.9478-A (Lupardo)/ S.6694-B (Harckham), which was signed into law on May 9 by Gov. Hochul as Chapter 198 of the Laws of 2022. The bill took effect immediately and now allows dental hygienists certified to use nitrous oxide and local infiltration anesthesia to use those modalities to assist dentists with all dental procedures. This will help dental offices gain efficiency and better serve patients. Previously, dental hygienists were limited to using these modalities for dental hygiene procedures, which was of limited benefit to dentists. It should be noted that the staff of Sen. Peter Harckham, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and Assemblyman John McDonald were all ex-
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JUNE/JULY 2022
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The New York State Dental Journal
tremely helpful in achieving passage of this bill and that the bill was acted upon swiftly in the respective Assembly and Senate Higher Education committees by Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and Sen. Toby Stavisky. Much effort was needed to separate it out from a previous omnibus version covering multiple issues from last year that was mired in process details that had prevented its passage. Second is A.7754-C (McDonald)/S.8533-A (Harckham), a bill to allow registered dental assistants to place and remove temporary restorations. This bill awaits delivery to Gov. Hochul for action; it is fully expected that the governor will sign it into law. In 2007, the New York State Education Department mandated that registered dental assisting programs teach and train registered dental assistants to place and remove temporary restorations, declaring in its official directive from then Deputy Commissioner for the Professions Frank Munoz to such academic programs that these procedures were within the scope of practice of registered dental assistants and they needed to be educated and trained to perform them. However, the registered dental assisting scope-of-practice law was never updated to match that directive, which has been carried out ever since 2007. The bill fixes that technical glitch to match the existing education standards
