 Hello everybody Andrea Trowsky here with dental ill tutoring. So a lot of you have been asking me if you're just out of high school Or you're thinking about a career in dental, but you're not sure what you want to do So you're thinking do I want to become a hygienist or an assistant now? I was an assistant first But I did always know that I wanted to be a dental hygienist since I was a kid But I'm not saying that dental hygiene is any better than assisting It's just that is just something that I wanted to do more of so I'll give you guys sort of a recap on the differences So dental assisting That's those are the ones who help out the dentist Okay, so pretty much with with everything so they seat the patient They clean up the room afterwards. They set up the room. They sterilize the instruments You would pass the instruments to the dentist for all of the procedures In some cases you might be on the phone's booking appointments Confirming appointments. Let's see. What else did I do when I was an assistant? So just pretty much think wherever the dentist is you are too if that makes sense Whereas a dental hygienist we are the ones that clean teeth So we aren't working with the dentist per se But we do have to ask them to come in at the end of the appointment To check the patient to see if they have any cavities Plus in some offices the dentist will also come in to make sure we cleaned the teeth properly Okay, so we clean the teeth we give patients oral hygiene Instruction we You know, it doesn't sound like we do a lot, but we do do a lot But it just depends on what you want to do and money Shouldn't be the reason for wanting to do something or not wanting to do something I loved being a dental assistant But I wanted to work sort of on my own a little bit more, you know What I always felt was if the dentist took holidays Well, I had to take holidays at the same time because I worked with the dentist So if they weren't there, then I was not there either if I wanted to take a holiday Outside of that time unless I could find somebody to cover for me I couldn't whereas a dental hygienist usually but not always You can take holidays whenever you want because you're not directly working with the dentist But it does depend on the office though There are offices that for example shut down for a week or two every year around Christmas time and they Will tell you that that's the only time that you can take your holidays Or they might shut down for a week or two during this summer And then they they would tell you that that's the only time that you're you're able to take holidays So I'm not trying to make it sound like An assistant job or a hygiene job is bad because you can't take holidays But I'm just the type of person where I like to be as Flexible as possible, you know, I don't want somebody telling me when I can take holidays But I'm not saying that that's a bad thing either So if you're not sure what you want to do just you know if think about it You know just think about it But if you're just honestly not sure at all then I do say that it's a good idea to become an assistant first so then you're not spending as much money for school and You can kind of get into an office and look at everything you get a pretty good idea of the first I'd say after the first a week or two is sort of how things are run, you know before I became an assistant I had no idea, you know as a Patient you do not see how things are run behind the scenes But as an assistant you have a pretty good idea now I was an assistant for at least two years I think even three years and then I went to school for hygiene, but I was still assisting at the same time and I Loved it. I did you guys But I just I I just always liked being able to work on my own if that makes sense And then I became a hygienist after that and I loved it, you know same thing I worked full-time in an office for about ten years Then I decided to become a temp hygienist about a year ago I'd say now because I like to be able to set my own hours. I like to be able to set my own schedule So that's why I'm a temp Dental hygienist so pretty much it's offices need me They call me and I say yes or no and where I live I could have a call every single day and it just depends on if I want to work or not But it depends on where you live to because you might not have that option So if you become either a temp hygienist or a temp assistant You might not get a call every day. So you have to think about well, do I want the steady income? Yes, or no, okay, so just kind of a couple things to think about. I do hope that that helps a little bit If you guys have any questions though, let me know But if you're just absolutely not sure what you want to do then it can't hurt to even ask Other dental assistants, you know just to ask them. So how would you explain? What you do or to ask a height a hygienist, so how would you explain sort of what you do? So think about it. Um, they are both excellent. I love them It just sort of depends on what you want to do. So I hope that helped you guys if you need anything Just let me know