That's a great question.
Actually, the federal government released a great report in 1971, the ad hoc report on dental auxiliaries. You may want to dig that out of the archives and take a look at it. They talked about this very same issue, about access to care for vulnerable populations and making equitable access for all Canadians. The recommendation from the committee at that time was that dental hygienists' scope of practice could be expanded to include some further opportunities for them to intervene.
There was a program where dental hygienists in the military, after a certain number of years, were eligible to go back and receive additional training and become a dental therapist. This model is also being used in other jurisdictions around the world where they have dual designation as a dental hygienist and a dental therapist, similarly to a nurse practitioner going back, after becoming a nurse, for additional training to become a nurse practitioner. A similar model has been used elsewhere for dental hygienists to become dental therapists, to have the dual designation.
But there are some things that are in our current scope of practice that we can do to intervene and to provide temporary relief of situations where there is no dentist available. An expanded scope of practice for dental hygienists could be considered.