Role of dental auxiliaries in dentistry

Kamate, Shivalingesh
I have been working as a Public Health Dentist since last 11 years. I have many International Publications in the field of dentistry as well as infectious diseases. My key area of interest is preventive dentistry which is the focus of attention nowadays. Hence I have made an attempt to highlight the functions and use of Dental Auxilaries.

Socrates in defining an ideal state gives us a prerequisite that men should divide labor, certain men becoming expert in certain fields, others in other fields and all working as a team for the common good. Some tasks actually require more than two hands. Other tasks are more quickly or better performed if one worker confines himself to part of the task leaving other parts to other workers. If the dental profession is to keep pace with this increase in demand, coupled with the increase in the number of people seeking dental care, then new ways of tackling this problem have to be found. This has forced the dental profession to move towards ever-greater utilization of dental auxiliaries. Dental auxiliary is a person who is given responsibility by a dentist so that he or she can help the dentist render dental care, but who is not himself or herself qualified with a dental degree.