(a) “Administration of local anesthesia” means the administration of local anesthetic agents by infiltration injection or conductive injection.

(b) “Administration of nitrous oxide and oxygen” means the administration of nitrous oxide and oxygen when used as an analgesic during dental treatment.

(c) “Basic supportive dental procedures” means fundamental duties or functions as referenced in section 1067(l), title 16, California Code of Regulations.

(d) “Dental Hygiene Board office” means the Dental Hygiene Board office located in Sacramento, California.

(e) “Dental assistant” means an unlicensed person as referenced in section 1067(b), title 16, California Code of Regulations.

(f) “Dental hygiene assessment” means the systematic collection, analysis, and documentation of the oral and general health status and patient needs through a variety of methods, including choice of radiographs, diagnostic tools, and instruments utilized within the scope of dental hygiene practice, for the primary purpose of formulating a dental hygiene care or treatment plan.

(g) “Dental hygiene care plan” means an organized presentation or list of interventions to promote health or prevent disease of the patient's oral condition; plan is designed by the dental hygienist and consists of services within the scope of dental hygiene practice.

(h) “Dental hygiene preventive services” means those services provided by the dental hygienist whose primary purpose is to prevent oral disease or pathology and promote oral health and overall health.

(i) “Dental hygiene therapeutic interventions” means specific procedure or set of procedures, provided within the scope of dental hygiene practice, designed to intervene in the disease process to produce a therapeutic benefit.

(j) “Dental hygiene treatment plan” means an organized presentation or list of interventions to promote health or prevent disease of the patient's oral condition designed by the registered dental hygienist in alternative practice based on assessment data and consists of services within the scope of practice of the registered dental hygienist in alternative practice.

(k) “Ethics” for the purposes of the examination required by section 1917(d) of the Business and Professions Code, means an act or acts in accordance with the California Dental Hygienists' Association's (CDHA's) Policy Manual, Chapter 2, Code of Ethics for Dental Hygienists (Amended HOD 2015), which is hereby incorporated by reference, or the American Dental Hygienists' Association's (ADHA's) Bylaws and Code of Ethics (Adopted June 23, 2014), which is hereby incorporated by reference, and ADHA Policy Manual, pages 7-12, (Adopted June 22, 2015), which is hereby incorporated by reference.

(l) “Executive Officer” means the Executive Officer appointed by the Dental Hygiene Board.

(m) “Gross trauma” means a burn, deep laceration, long laceration and/or puncture to soft tissue, hard tissue, and/or bone.

(n) “Licentiate” or “Licensee” means any individual licensed or registered by the Dental Hygiene Board.

(o) “Periodontal debridement” means the process by which hard and soft deposits are removed from the supragingival and subgingival surfaces of the teeth, including the disruption of bacterial cell walls of nonadherent plaque.

(p) “Periodontal evaluation record” means that part of the dental hygiene assessment document pertaining to the clinical observations of the gingiva, periodontal pocket probe depths, measurement of the location of the free gingival margin/recession, calculation of attachment loss, measurement of keratinized/attached gingiva, detection of marginal and deep bleeding on probing, detection of suppuration, detection of furcation involvement, detection of fremitus and mobility, and assessment of plaque and calculus accumulations.

(q) “Polishing the coronal surfaces of teeth”, or “coronal polishing” means a procedure limited to the removal of plaque on and stain from exposed tooth surfaces, utilizing an appropriate rotary instrument with rubber cup or brush and a polishing agent.

(r) “Refer” means the action taken after determining that services are needed beyond the dental hygienist's scope of practice to provide and ensure that the patient is directed to a healthcare provider who can provide that care.

(s) “Root planing” means the process of instrumentation which removes residual calculus and toxic materials from the root to produce a clean, smooth surface.

(t) “Scaling” means the removal of calculus and dental biofilm from the supragingival and subgingival exposed tooth surfaces.

(u) “Soft tissue curettage” means the removal of the inflamed soft tissue lateral to the pocket wall, which is not subgingival curettage referring to the procedure that is performed apical to the epithelial attachment, severing the connective tissue attachment down to the osseous crest.

(v) “Treatment facility” for purposes of section 1902 of the Business and Professions Code, means any place where oral health services are provided.