Recently, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Alberta (CMOH) granted an exemption to Order 42-2020. The exemption allows massage services to be “provided to a patient or client upon the issuance of prescription by a physician or referral by a member of another health regulatory body for the patient or client to receive massage therapy services”.
While dental assistants are members of a health regulatory body (our College), they aren’t authorized to make massage therapy service referrals. This activity isn’t part of a dental assistant’s role. The CMOH’s exemption doesn’t authorize dental assistants for this activity.
Dental assistants must:
- confine their practice to activities they are authorized for1
- decline to perform any services they are not authorized for2
1. Standards of Practice 7.2(a)
2. Standards of Practice 7.2(d)