2022, issue 22

Prescription vs Direct Access

ByRupert Hoppenbrouwers

Published31 May 2022

For dental hygienists and therapists, understanding the overlap and boundaries of prescription and Direct Access can be confusing.

When treating a patient on referral from a dentist, the patient's consent to undergoing treatment by a hygienist or therapist does not in any way remove the need for a written prescription from that dentist.

Rupert Hoppenbrouwers

Senior dento-legal adviser

Rupert Hoppenbrouwers (BDS LDSRCS) was head of the DDU until his retirement at the end of 2015. He is a former general dental practitioner and was director of the School of Dental Hygiene at University College Hospital, London, from 1980 to 1986. He has lectured and written widely on risk management and dento-legal matters, has previously chaired the UK Dental Law and Ethics Forum, and has a particular interest in complex ethical and legal issues affecting dental members