Dental hygienist in the context of "Oral cancer"

A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in providing oral health services. The dental team includes dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental technicians, and sometimes dental therapists.

Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound, it is a port city 60 miles (97 km) from Manhattan and 40 miles (64 km) from The Bronx. It borders the towns of Trumbull to the north, Fairfield to the west, and Stratford to the east. Bridgeport and other towns in Fairfield County make up the Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, as well as the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolitan statistical area, the second largest metropolitan area in Connecticut. The Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolis forms part of the New York metropolitan area.

Inhabited by the Paugussett Native American tribe until English settlement in the 1600s, Bridgeport was incorporated in 1821 as a town, and as a city in 1836. Showman P. T. Barnum was a resident of the city and served as the town's mayor (1871). Barnum built four houses in Bridgeport and housed his circus in town during winter. The city in the early 20th century saw an economic and population boom, becoming by all measures Connecticut's chief manufacturing city by 1905. Bridgeport was the site of the world's first mutual telephone exchange (1877), the first dental hygiene school (1949), and the first bank telephone bill service in the US (1981). Inventor Harvey Hubbell II invented the electric plug outlet in Bridgeport in 1912. The Frisbie Pie Company was founded and operated in Bridgeport. The world's first Subway restaurant opened in the city's North End in 1965. After World War II, industrial restructuring and suburbanization caused the loss of many large companies and affluent residents, leaving Bridgeport struggling with issues of poverty and violent crime.

Dental assistants are members of the dental team. They support a dental operator (such as a dentist or other treating dental auxiliary) in providing more efficient dental treatment. Dental assistants are distinguished from other groups of dental auxiliaries (such as dental therapists, dental hygienists and dental technicians) by differing training, roles and patient scopes.

A dental auxiliary is any oral health practitioner other than a dentist & dental hygienist, including the supporting team assisting in dental treatment. They include dental assistants (known as dental nurses in the United Kingdom and Ireland), dental therapists and oral health therapists, dental technologists, and orthodontic auxiliaries. The role of dental auxiliaries is usually set out in regional dental regulations, defining the treatment that can be performed.

A dental school (school of dental medicine, school of dentistry, dental college) is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches dental medicine to prospective dentists and potentially other dental auxiliaries. Dental school graduates receive a degree in Dentistry, Dental Surgery, or Dental Medicine, which, depending upon the jurisdiction, might be a bachelor's degree, master's degree, a professional degree, or a doctorate. Schools can also offer postgraduate training in general dentistry, and/or training in endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral pathology, oral and maxillofacial radiology, orthodontics, pedodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, dental public health, restorative dentistry, as well as postgraduate training for dental hygienists and dental technicians.

Other oral health professionals including dental hygienists, dental technicians and denturists, dental therapists and oral health therapists, Dental assistants or dental nurses, and other members of the dental auxiliary including orthodontic auxiliaries may be trained at dental schools, or at universities of applied science or polytechnics.