I can't relate this to postmodernism but I can tell you something about dental workers. If this person was scraping your teeth my guess is she is a dental hygienist rather than a dental assistant, unless N. Dakota has different practice standards. Dental hygiene is a licensed occupation and most practitioners would probably consider themselves professionals as opposed to blue collar workers. Education for DHs in Oregon is either through 2 year community college programs or bachelor's degree programs. As I'm writing this their position begins to sound similar to registered nurses. My connection with dental hygienists is in investigating the health and safety hazards of their jobs. I can tell you that their exposures to physical stress and strain (as well as bloodborne diseases) places them at levels of risk of work-related injury and illness far higher than many industrial workers, so in that respect their work may qualify as blue collar. Their work seems to be increasingly routinized, as they spend much of their time repetitively scaling (scraping) teeth. My understanding is that dental hygiene is a big money maker for dentists because it's a steady insurance-paid revenue stream. If you want to get into the pecking order of dental hygienists and dental assistants, that opens up another whole issue. Dental assistants, while some may also consider it a profession, are definitely at the low end of the hierarchy in dental offices. In fact looking at health studies of all the dental professions, a major psychosocial risk factor for assistants seems to be the low value placed on their work by dentists. There. Is that more than you ever wanted to know about dental workers? Steve Hecker >Hi Folks! > > > The other day I was at my dentist's office for checkup and >cleaning. As the dental assistant was scraping my teeth I was thinking: is >she blue collar or white collar worker? I know she is "unproductive" >worker. Can someone care to comment? > > Fikret > >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >+Fikret Ceyhun voice: (701)777-3348 work + >+Dept. of Economics (701)772-5135 home + >+Univ. of North Dakota fax: (701)777-5099 + >+University Station, Box 8369 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] + >+Grand Forks, ND 58202/USA + >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Steven Hecker Labor Education and Research Center 1289 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1289 USA tel: 541-346-2788 * Note new area code now in effect fax: 541-346-2790 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
