Dental Corpsman and regular Corpsman. Should they stay merged or go back to being seperate rates?

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 20:34:40 -0400

I'm a dental corpsman and I keep getting asked by other rates, other branch members and even non dental corpsman what I think about the corpsman/dental rate merge and our advancement test experience as a dental tech.

What are your thoughts? Do you think the rate merge was beneficial or hurt the rates?

I'm still new in the Navy and wondered why the dental corps. and hospital corps. merged together. What were the pros and cons to doing it? I'm coming on 3 years and I don't really see the point of it. In my opinion, the dental corps should be a seperate rate again.

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Response by CPT Zachary Brooks made Apr 8 at 2015 8:42 PM

CPT Zachary Brooks — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 20:42:43 -0400

Likely to reduce costs and overhead by decreasing the number of stars overhead. Many of the tasks performed would be within the same realms of care.

Response by PO3 Kevin Loukopoulous made Jun 11 at 2015 6:49 PM

PO3 Kevin Loukopoulous — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 18:49:33 -0400

I've never heard of a Dental Corpsman? I've heard of Dental tech rating. They are not Corpsman and should not be called a Corpsman.

Response by PO3 Josie Buchanan made Jun 16 at 2015 10:05 AM

PO3 Josie Buchanan — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 10:05:33 -0400

as a former corpsman I believe that some training in dental emergecies should be part of the curriculim. But becoming specialized in on specific job so more advanced training is required should keep all ratings as their own. Yes cross train but if you specialize in one area you should be designated that specialty.

Response by HN Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 21 at 2015 4:55 PM

HN Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 16:55:45 -0400

I don't want to seem like a douche, but I think that we should be our own rates again.. I've met a lot of Dental techs, and to be fair a lot of them don't know how to give medical care like a regular quad zero. Dental techs are really good at their jobs and quad zeros are really good as far as medical emergencies go. If you are going to keep the rates merged then at least make Dental techs get refresher training on medical care every year or so.