What Is an Auxiliary in Dentistry?

Many dentists are of the old school and do everything themselves in their office, including impressions, temporary crowns and bridges, cleaning up and sterilizing the operatory after use. Fortunately for dental auxiliaries, not all dentists do things this way. Many dentists employ a support staff, each with a specialty, some requiring a license. These employees, called dental auxiliaries, include hygienists, dental assistants and sterilization assistants.

Dental Assistants

• A dental assistant is not licensed and, as a result, her duties are limited. She can assist the dentist during exams, set up instruments, chart obvious lesions on a dental chart to be verified by the doctor, take x-rays and assist with the cleanup of the patient. While the dental assistant is needed, she cannot do certain things a licensed dental assistant is allowed to do. She has the lowest pay in the office.

Licensed, Certified or Registered Dental Assistants

• Many states have dental assistants that are licensed to perform duties in the dental office that the dentist would otherwise be doing. For example, in California, a Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) can remove cement from a newly seated crown, apply pit and fissure sealants and perform coronal polishing on children, make temporary crowns and bridges and place temporary medicated restorations for a toothache. It could be said that licensed dental assistant is the dentist's right hand, and of the auxiliaries, aside from the hygienists, she has the highest salary.

Dental Hygienist

• A dental hygienist must be licensed by the state in which she works. The dental hygienist is an auxiliary, but she is also in her own class. For example, in California, a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) commands a high wage for doing what a dentist considers secondary productive procedures. Duties such as as teeth cleaning, charting the patient's gum disease, doing deep cleaning called root planing and other oral hygiene treatments are part of a hygienists function. She also takes x-rays, provides anesthesia, applies pit and fissure sealants, gives oral hygiene instructions to patients with periodontal issues, and can work independent of the dentist. He works as an independent contractor, picking the days and jobs to work. The RDH is usually the highest paid employee in the dental office aside from the dentist.

Sterilization Assistant

• In most offices, a dental assistant or licensed dental assistant maintain the sanitation of equipment and the rooms. Some offices are busy enough to employ a person just to do the sterilization of the instruments. The sterilization specialist receives the dirty trays from the dental assistants and the hygienist and immediately cleans them. All disposable items are thrown away, and all metal instruments are placed in an ultrasonic system to eliminate any dry or wet debris. They are then removed from the ultrasonic, rinsed with hot water and spread out on a towel. The sterilization specialist bags instruments by set up; for example, amalgam filling set up, exam set up, or extraction set up. The finished set up bags are loaded into the autoclave for sterilization.