Both the Dental Assistants and Dental Hygienists carry out the supportive role in dental clinics by helping the dentists. Although they deliver the same kind of job, they differ in terms of their duties, training, education and pay packages. Dental Assistants are generally said to be the right hand of a dentist, because they performs all the pre works necessary for dental operations carried out by the dentists. Dental Hygienists are those professionals who are responsible for cleaning the patients’ teeth, taking medical history of them, etc.  

Dental Assistant Course and Career opportunity

The dental practice presents many job opportunities. Dental assistant jobs are one such profession in the dentistry field. They prepare everything that is required for the dentist to provide dental treatments to the patients. The main duties of dental assistants include sterilizing dental equipments, preparing trays and instruments; assist the dentist during treatment, taking X-rays, etc. They work directly with the patients before, during and after the dental treatments and give them instructions about oral health care. The other responsibilities of Dental Assistants are taking the teeth impressions or making models of teeth, carry out patient appointments, administrative duties concerned with processing insurance and perform office management. Dental Assistants usually need peculiar type of training in formal settings which is most important than the formal dental education.

Dental Hygienist Course and Career opportunity

Dental Hygienists are also the professionals working in dentistry field. They are responsible to perform the cleaning process of patients’ teeth. They organize oral health examinations which also includes periodontal charting. Since most of their work overlap with those of dental assistants, they need advance education and more direct patient care to perform in this profession. These professionals are licensed to carry out cleaning and polishing together with scaling and root planning processes. They also educate patients about good dental hygiene. Depending on their state and licensing programmes, most dental hygienists apply periodontal dressings, remove stitches, and provide temporary fillings under the supervision of a dentist.

Key differentiators between Dental Assistant and Dental Hygienist

Dental Assistants perform all the pre works that are required for the dentists to carry out dental treatments whereas dental hygienists are responsible for cleaning the patients’ teeth.

Even though Dental assistants and Dental hygienists perform the same supportive role in dental clinics, their job nature and duties are different from each other.