The effects of dental hygienist autonomy on dental care utilization

We investigate the effects of regulations governing the practice autonomy of dental hygienists on dental care use with the 2001–2014 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We measure the strength of autonomy regulations by extending the Dental Hygiene Professional Practice Index to the years 2001–2014, allowing us to capture changes in regulations within states over time. Using a difference-in-differences framework applied to selected states, we find that relaxing supervision requirements to provide dental hygienists moderate autonomy results in an increase in total dental visits due to greater use of preventive dental care. However, the use of dental treatment decreases when states adopt the highest level of autonomy. Both sets of estimates increase in magnitude when we subset the sample to dental care provider shortage areas. In support of these findings, we show that dental visits shift to dental hygienists in shortage areas when states expand the scope of practice of hygienists, and that there is an increase in tasks performed by hygienists, such as cleanings and dental exams.