Becoming a Dental assistant?

After that I want to become a dental hygienist, not too far down the road so I will have some experience.








Is it really that hard to get into a program?





And is the schooling really that hard?

Becoming a Dental assistant?
I'm not sure that becoming a dental assistant will help you in your quest to become a hygienist. I guess it depends on where you work and if the hygienists have assistants. In some places, they do; most do not. You might, instead, want to talk to hygienists and maybe shadow them as they work.





As for it the difficulty of getting into and then staying in a program, all I can say is this: hygienists are very well trained and qualified, and have *vast* knowledge of microbiology and human anatomy as it relates to the human head and neck. Do not embark on this course if you are thinking it's going to be easy.





Check out the American Dental Hygiene Association's website at http://www.adha.org/. There is a section of the site dedicated to dental hygiene students which you may find useful.
Reply:Alot of hygenist I know worked as assistants beforehand to make sure they could handle the aspects of working in the dental field. They also said it gave them an advantage when they began going to the dental hygiene program because they already knew alot of the information they needed.





I personally feel like it would give you an advantage because you would obtain some experience in a dental office, you could talk more with the hygienist on staff, and you would expand your knowledge of the mouth and different conditions that can affect it.





I have heard that the dental hygiene program is a hard program, but if you are going in with some prior knowledge it can only help you!





Dentists and hygienists have to learn everything about the human body and how different things affect it. Not just the mouth, so that is something to consider also!





Good luck to you!
Reply:Whatever you do, just dont go to school to be a dental assistant. I did and it was a waste of time and money. Most offices would rather train someone to assist the way they want them, not have to retrain them from what they learned in school. Also, in my area anyway, assisting jobs are hard to find, and the ones that you can find are for minimum wage or maybe 9 bucks an hour, no insurance. I was going to go to school for dental hygiene as well, but again, in our area, dental jobs are overfilled right now, and there are way too many people looking for the same position. The hygienist i was working with told me if she could do it over she would have been a nurse, so she could have benefits, more hours, etc, she does make 40 an hour, but insurance and hours are a big part of it too. Another girl I know graduated from hygiene school 6 months ago, cant find a single job in the area, so before you make a decision, see if you can get in contact with a hygienist in your area, maybe job shadow for a couple days, ask her some questions, look in your areas job hunter section and see if it looks like hygienists are in high demand in your area. I think maybe you should also see if you could meet up with someone who is currently a hygiene student or someone who just graduated and ask them what they think.


Just make sure you do all your research, I didnt and now Im in debt, and have to pick a new career, cause Im not willing to move myself and my daughter out of state to look for work.


If you still wanna do it then I would enroll now, cause yes, at most schools the waiting list is pretty long, in the meantime just take some prerequisite courses, english, science, math, and whatever else is important.





Good Luck! I hope whatever you decide to do works out for ya!