Dental hygienists do you hate it when people think you are a dental assistant?
I am a RDH and it drives me crazy when people call me a dental assistant or assume I trained on the job! Why don’t more people realize a dental hygienist is the nurse of the dental field? I never hear someone call a RN a LPN or CNA. But I am frequently referred to as a dental assistant by people. Even my own boyfriend told friends and relatives I was a dental assistant when we started dating! I was so ticked off. I told him that’s like calling a RN a LPN!
I actually applied to an office that told me they had random people calling inquiring about the dental hygienist position stating they "were interested in changing careers and would like to try out dental hygiene"! Meaning they had no college degree in dental hygiene and no state license as a hygienist and thought they could train on the job!
Why don’t more people understand what a dental hygienist is? And does it bother you, as a dental hygienist, if someone refers to you as a dental assistant?
The only reason it upsets me is because the education level from an assistant to a hygienist is completely different. It was the hardest program to get into and to complete. And being called an assistant makes all that grueling education feel meaningless to me if I am not recognized for it.
I am looking for how dental hygienists feel only about this issue. Clearly the first person who answered doesn’t know a hygienist and is not a hygienist if they don’t understand how I feel. I am sure it bothers their friends who are called nurses when they are doctors. Maybe the friends don’t tell you how much it bothers them but believe me it doesn’t just roll off their back.
Filed under: Dental Hygienist, Dental Assistant Programs
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The reason it happens, from a very broad point of view, is that the dental industry positions dentists as the credible expert, and everyone else as their assistants. There has been no public awareness campaign to explain the difference between assistant and hygienist, or the training involved in either role. Bottom line: from the public viewpoint, you are either a dentist, or you are not.
What to do? You become the solution. You educate your customer and you do it in a very professional way. Some ideas include:
* Get your profile posted on your company website, and also in the office. Have your picture there with your credentials listed. Everyone in your office that has patient contact on the medical side should do this anyway.
* When a patient refers to you as an assistant you simply state something like: "Thanks. But I’m actually a licensed dental hygienist. I went to school at (Name) and graduated with a degree in (Name).
* Are you a member of ADHA? If not, you should look at the merits of doing so. http://www.adha.org/ They are the lobbying and information arm for your profession. They may even have proven ideas of how to elevate the awareness of what you do and the value of your profession.
I’m sorry, but what does it matter if strangers don’t know the difference between an Assistant and a Hygenist? I understand pride for your job, but if it’s making you hate and driving you crazy to have your job misunderstood, you might want to look into therapy.
It’s rather narcissistic to have to be "recognized for it". If you know what you do and you do it well, your patients like you, and the dentist likes you, isn’t that enough? Do you really need a parade?
Honestly, there are much bigger things to get worked up about. You can’t expect everyone to understand the difference and you are going to drive yourself to an early grave if you keep letting this get to you.
Don’t get me wrong, if someone calls you a dental assistant, correct them, but then move on. Life’s too short to be upset about this.
I’m friends with plenty of female doctors and they get called "nurse" all the time. And what do they do? Let it roll off their back and move on. If they threw a tempertantrum about it, they wouldn’t last long in what they do.
Edit: lol, "believe me it doesn’t just roll off their back." Yeah, it does. They have more important things to worry about. It probably bothered them when they were in med school, but now, why would they care? They need to be focused on caring for patients. But, thank you for telling me and my friends what they are really thinking. All of us with IQs over 60 need to be reminded by someone like you what we think and feel, lol.