 Hello everybody Andrea with dental L tutoring. I have been tutoring dental hygiene and dental assisting students past the board exam for about 18 years now. Now do you have to be a dental assistant before you go into the dental hygiene program or even thinking about it? A lot of people ask me you know what Andrea I want to be a dental hygienist but is it recommended to be a dental assistant first? So let me answer that for you. The short answer is you do not have to be no. I was a dental assistant first though. Back when I was in college I want to say a year before I attended college you had to be a dental assistant first and then you would be able to go into the dental hygiene program but you needed that dental assisting certificate first. But then when I got to college that had actually stopped that year so I didn't have to become a dental assistant first but you know what I wanted to because the dental assisting program was much cheaper than the dental hygiene program and it still is and it was a year at the time versus two years to be a dental hygienist. So what I wanted to do is I did want to be a dental assistant first because I wanted to get my feet wet to really kind of know what a dental office is like and hey is this what I want to do? I would rather spend this much money on a program for a year than spend three times as much if not more on the dental hygiene program for longer and then realize maybe it wasn't for me. So the short answer though is no you do not need to be a dental assistant first is it going to help you in your dental hygiene program? It will but it's really not necessary. It's going to help you with things like when you first learn about the tooth numbers, the tooth surfaces, it's going to help you with dental anatomy, it's going to help you know the dental office so you kind of know what to expect and you don't have that nerve racking sense of I'm a dental hygienist I've never worked in a dental office before oh my god what do I do? When you're a dental assistant though for the first time it's no different. You've never worked in a dental office before either and you're thinking the same thing like oh my goodness I'm a new dental assistant I've never worked in an office before what do I do? So I feel like you're going to feel that way either way. If people ask me though if I recommend they become a dental assistant first I'm going to tell them yes because it's going to help you throughout your program but do you have to be? No I know many hygienists who were not dental assistants first and they did just fine but you will be a step ahead you will probably feel more comfortable when you start working in a dental office you can kind of focus on learning your dental hygiene stuff that you just learned not okay I don't know what a dental office is like what do I do who do I talk to what does an assistant do what does the dentist do you know you kind of learn all of the basics and your dental assisting program but it's not necessary so I hope that helps you guys please let me know if any questions whatsoever and I'll talk to you guys very soon