Government has blocked the progress of the Dental Practitioners Amendment Act after Opposition and Independent Senators succeeded in amending it.

While the bill, which updates the dentistry profession, was largely non-contentious, clauses which limited every dentist to employing no more than a set number of dental assistants and dental hygienists came under fire.

Opposition Senate Leader Michael Dunkley argued that it should be up to dentists themselves to decide how many people they employed.

He said: "How is it going to be decided how many dental hygienists dentists have?

"I don't believe boards should be set up to run business, they should be set up to give guidelines."

Government Sen. Walton Brown argued the legislation had been driven by the dental profession itself so the clauses must have had some rationale behind them.

But the clauses also came under fire from independent Senators.

Upper Chamber president Alf Oughton said it was up to individual businesses to decide how many staff they needed.

Government Sen. Thaao Dill argued that it wasn't a product that was being discussed.

"We are talking about medical procedures," he said.

And he added that the Health Ministry would be consulting the dentists about what number was suitable and the issue would be dealt with in regulations.

But Sen. Oughton said Government didn't stipulate how many staff doctors were allowed to have and fellow Independent Walwyn Hughes said Parliament would have no scrutiny on what was decided.

The two Opposition amendments to delete the contentious clauses were put to the vote with the five Government Senators losing out to the three Opposition and three independent Senators.

When the bill was about to go to the third reading Senate leader David Burch intervened to stop it going ahead.

Sen. Burch later told The Royal Gazette: "The Bill goes back to the House of Assembly."

Asked if there were ever any circumstances he would agree to an Opposition amendment he said: "There probably is some circumstance.

"But I take the view that a milkman is unlikely to have legal expertise greater than people in the Attorney General's chambers who have spent years drafting legislation and so I am not going to take it on the trot from someone who has no experience in that regard."

The bill which passed in the House of Assembly recently would require dentists, hygienists and assistants to have continuing education to remain registered, a professional conduct committee will be set up and the board must report annually on its dealings.

The Board will increase from five to seven members with the senior Government dental officer becoming an ex officio member.

The Dental Practitioners Amendment Act 2008 amends a 1950 act which had no provision for registering dental hygienists and assistants.

And it insists on mandatory reporting of impaired practitioners, establishes a Professional Conduct Committee and streamlines disciplinary procedures.

The Bermuda Dental Association and Bermuda Dental Hygiene Association will be allowed to nominate members for the Minister to appoint, similar to other medical boards.