I am glad to hear that you are not interested in trying to go the easy way and do perceptorship. Perceptorship is a quick way to get a hygienist status/title, but it does you no good throughout the country. The Military is the same way. The Air Force has what they call prophy techs, and you are trained to clean teeth in the military, but again, this does you no good anywhere else in the country, after the military. And last I want to suggest, if you are looking to make more money at what you are doing, you will need to move to another state within the U.S. Alabama is in their own Dental world. It must be a great place for a dentist to make a lot of money, but a poor place for any kind of dental auxillary. I recently moved here to Arizona, and was very impressed with the restrictions Arizona places on all dental personnel. So in effect from these restrictions, dental personnel are treated like professionals, and so paid like professionals. A good dental assistant can easily make around $15.00 an hour. A hygienist easily doubles that in an hourly pay. To sum up what I am saying, if you want to make more money doing exactly the same thing, you need to move somewhere where dental professionals are held in high regard. But, you will also need the proper training to back up your desired pay. Good Luck!
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