Apply to have an exclusion removed from your scope of practice

In March 2011, the dental hygiene scope of practice was expanded to include the following tasks:

• undertaking orthodontic procedures
• administering local anaesthesia
• taking extra-oral radiography
• taking intra-oral radiography.

These used to be called additional scopes of practice.

Now, if you are not qualified in an ‘additional scope’, you will have an ‘exclusion’ placed on your dental hygiene scope of practice to show that you are not registered to practise in the excluded area; for example – 

dental hygiene practice excluding undertaking orthodontic procedures.

To remove an exclusion from your dental hygiene scope of practice, you can undertake a Council-approved course. Once you have successfully completed the course, you can apply to have the exclusion removed, and you must do so before you can legally perform the tasks permitted by the exclusion.

Some overseas qualifications include training in one or more of the ‘exclusions’.  If you can provide satisfactory evidence to us that you have received appropriate training and instruction, you can apply to have the exclusion removed from your scope of practice.

Similarly, you can have any overseas course of study and instruction you have completed assessed to determine whether it is an acceptable basis for removing an exclusion from your scope of practice.

When you are ready, you can apply to remove an exclusion from your scope of practice using our online services. You need to complete and submit the removal of an exclusion form, provide relevant documents and pay the correct fee.