We've all been there: you sit in the chair at the dentist's office while the dentist 和 his or her assistant peer at your teeth' or lie in that same chair while a hygienist polishes 和 flosses your pearly whites.
你当时可能不会想太多, but each of those people in the dentist's office has a highly specific job to perform. 如果你想在医疗保健行业工作, 尤其是在牙科领域, 然后最好弄清楚每个人的角色, 尤其是那些牙科助理和牙科保健员.
Dental assistants 和 dental hygienists may sound like they do very similar jobs. 在某种程度上，确实如此. They both interact with patients 和 they both are a key part of the office team.1
但相似之处就到此为止了.
Dental assistants tend to be the dentist's right-h和 man or woman. 他们的工作是使牙医的工作更容易. 这可能意味着做以下任何一件事:
与助理不同，牙科保健师往往是单独工作的. A hygienist helps you keep good hygiene 和 also performs more complicated procedures.
有时他们会拍x光片或给牙齿印模, 就像牙医助理一样, 但他们的职责主要包括以下内容
You'll need training 和/or education for both jobs, 和 more of it to become a dental hygienist.
Some states allow dental assistants to learn their trade on the job, without a formal education. 其他则需要通过州考试获得认证, 一个许可证, 和/或认证课程的文凭. This could be from a one-year certificate/diploma program, or from an associate's degree program.1
Most dental assisting programs include supervised, practical training.
Dental hygienists, on the other h和, require a minimum of an associate's degree, plus 一个许可证.2
在大多数州, licensing requires both a degree from an accredited program 和 successful completion of both oral 和 written exams.2
这两个角色之间还有一个很大的区别. Because dental hygienists require much more education 和 perform complicated, 不受监督的专业职责, 他们的收入是牙医助理的两倍, 根据联邦政府的说法. (他们也可能为他们的教育支付更多的钱.)
According to the most recent (2014) US Department of Labor's 劳工统计局 (BLS), 牙科助理的平均工资为35美元,390元/年.3
牙科保健师的工资为71520美元.4
Job outlooks for both roles are healthy 和 expected to grow much faster than average: the BLS projects employment of dental assistants to grow 18 percent into 2024,5 牙科保健师的比例下降了19%.6
Please keep in mind employment 和 income cannot be guaranteed by any educational institution for students or graduates. 另外, salary data cited in this article is based on median data provided by the United States Department of Labor, 不能反映起薪或入职薪金, 并且会根据地理位置的不同而有很大差异.
1http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm
2http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-hygienists.htm
3http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm
4http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-hygienists.htm
5http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm
6http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-hygienists.htm
