Dental Hygienist

A dental hygienist is a dental practitioner that works under the dental regulatory body. Working as a dental hygienist, you will be very close to your patient’s mouth and will be examining it very closely. Your responsibility would be to clean your patient’s teeth and check for the presence of any cavities. A dental hygienist has to work along with the dentist, and they work as their right hand by helping them with the smaller tasks like cleaning the teeth and doing an x-ray, and similar other tasks. To be able to become a dental hygienist, you have to have a developed career in dentistry. There are some of the courses that you can do to achieve this level of experience and qualification. A dental hygienist may not be equal to a dentist but can do most of the tasks by themselves.

Roles of a dental hygienist

There are different roles and duties of a dental hygienist, and the following are some of them. These duties are not all about helping the dentist with the procedure, but it also includes some of the other tasks as described below.

• The dental hygienists conduct dental cleansing
• The screening may also be one by one for the patient’s oral health. This is to determine if anything is wrong with the patient’s oral health.
• Counseling patients is an essential part of a dental hygienist’s duty.
• Impressions of the teeth for the implants, dentures, and even for the braces are required and are taken by the dental hygienist.
• They can also apply preventive care treatments.
• Educating a patient, a boy, a good dental hygienist is an important responsibility and is patient counseling.

A dental hygienist does these things daily as these are an essential part of his routine.

Salary of a dental hygienist

The salary of a dental hygienist may vary worldwide, but the difference between the salaries is not huge. Usually, the dental hygienist is paid the same amount in almost all the USA, and the only difference between each state of the USA. According to salary.com, the average salary as per January 2021 of a dental hygienist is $75,339 in the USA. The salary can range from 65,000 USD to 85,000 USD in the United States of America, and each state has its average salary for the dental hygienist. The variations in the salary can because of the type of institute the dental hygienist is working at. When you have a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene, you can earn even more salary, which can be up to 10,000 USD in the USA. Each year, the salary raise is very common, and you will earn even better with your experience. The minimum you can make with the lowest education and experience level is around 53,000 USD in the USA.

Things that affect the dental hygienist salary

Many things can affect the dental hygienist salary, and the following are some of these things

The type of institute the dental hygienist is working at will play a significant role in determining dental hygienist salary.

Just like in any other job, the experience, in this case, matters a lot too for a better salary.

The people around you’ socioeconomic status will also play a massive role in the dental hygienist’s salary package.

The level of education is one of the things that will play its role in the amount of salary a dental hygienist will get.

How to become a dental hygienist

Following are some of the things that you will need to do to become a dental hygienist

1. Earning a degree related to dental hygiene is essential, and no matter how short your academic time is, you will need education in almost any kind of work. So, when you wish to become a dental hygienist, you should have the education related to this field. Usually, if you have to become a dental hygienist, you can easily enter a program from a community college or a trade school, but some of the degrees at the university level and you can go for the associate degree program of dental hygiene from there. You can also take any available classes to become a dental hygienist, but to get a job, you should have to have lab experience and have had an internship. The difference between the associate degree program and the short course is the period. It takes two years for an associate degree program and one year or a few months to complete your course from a community college.
2. Becoming licensed is the next thing you need to do after getting your diploma or degree related to dental hygiene. To obtain that license, you will also have to pass the exam from the national board of dental hygiene. The other things apart from taking that exam are following some things

• Sometimes of experience is required as a job or even in the form of an internship
• You need to do CPR training as well.
• You passed an exam from another state when you have already given it.

The things that are questioned in this exam include the theory of your practice, knowledge of all the dental procedures, and medical, especially dental, terminology. This exam will cost you 150 USD in the USA, and these rates may vary from state to state as well. Once you have passed the exam and obtained the license, it lasts for 3 to 5 years, and after that, you have to give further proof of your education.

3. To land any new and good job, you should have a lot of experience, gain that experience from the internship or do small jobs at the very start. The internship and externships are counted as professional experiences, so the more you have, the better job opportunities you will get. Following are some of the other things that you can do to get more experience

• You can volunteer at the summer dental programs for the children.
• You can avail of various internships as well.
• You can have the sales experience of dental hygiene products.
• You can work with another dental hygienist to gain experience
• Some research and lab work will be an excellent experience for you.
• You can arrange the dental health talk in the community to educate them about it.

4. You can do another thing to obtain better job opportunities, which is to get further education as a dental hygienist. When you have had the experience you have gained so far in your professional years and want to study further to extend your career, you can further achieve further education. If you have just done a course, you can further your education by doing a bachelor’s in dental hygiene. Some of the colleges will accept the credits in your community college courses and add them to your bachelor’s program, and that way, you will be able to achieve the bachelor’s degree program in dental hygiene. Usually, to finish your bachelor’s degree can take more than two years, but with these already available credits, you will only need two more years at maximum to obtain your bachelor’s degree. You can also do some further courses like dental procedures, oral surgery, and dental law and ethics.

Education required to become dental hygienists

To become a dental hygienist, you will need the required academic record. You need to have a course of one year in dental hygiene that the community colleges offer; with these courses, you will be able to get a job as a dental hygienist very quickly. All you may need, which is a different experience in the form of an internship or externship, and even some volunteer work may help you. With the associate degree programs, you will be able to get even better job opportunities; with this degree, you will get a raise and a promotion. Some of the dental hygiene degrees also have internships and externships in the program, so wherever you go for a job, you will have the experience at hand and will be able to secure a good job with better pay. Getting an associate degree will be helpful in another way, too, and that is when you apply for specific jobs, the employers only require the dental hygienist with a bachelor’s degree. With the bachelor’s degree, the students are taught how to give anesthesia as well, and the following are some of the other things they are trained to do.

• Humanities,
• Radiography
• Dental specialties
• Dental emergency management
• Behavioral sciences

Studying to be a dental hygienist doesn’t mean you will be specified for this job only, but you can also apply for other jobs like as follows

• Pharmaceutical sales
• Dental hygiene program director
• Nursing home consultant
• Public health officer
• Dental insurance officer

These are all the other fields that you can go into when you have obtained a degree in dental hygiene, and there will be many more opportunities; you can also do the masters in it afterward.

Licensing procedures for the dental hygienist

The licensing procedure for a dental hygienist is the change in each of the US states, and according to that, the licensing application process may be changed as well. Each state will have its requirements for the dental hygienist license. Getting a license before starting practice as a dental hygienist is a legal requirement, and you are not allowed to work as a dental hygienist without a license. The American dental hygienist association is an accredited naked responsible for providing the license to the dental hygienist. When you have a license, we show the patients and the clients that you are competent and certified to perform these dental procedures. To get a license, you will need the following things

• A degree from an accredited institute
• You must have passed the national exam for a license

You must have passed the state exam for the license. Each state has a different exam, and the national exam must be passed by all the dental hygienists of the United States of America. Since this exam is the same for all, so following are the subjects that you will need for passing the national exam

• Research principles
• The scientific basis for the dental hygiene practice
• Community health
• Clinical dental hygiene services.

Based on the previous exams, you can easily judge what to expect from your national license exam. This exam has almost 350 questions, and they can be in the form of MCQs, fill in the blanks, and the statement questions as well, and some of these questions may not even be graded. To get your license, you must have more than 75 percent in your exam.

Some states need just this exam to give you a license, but some states also require their very own exam before giving you the license. When you have to continue your education and achieve a higher degree, you can keep on doing that, which may or may not affect your license. This license is valid only for some of the years, and after that, you will have to apply for the renewal of your license. This way, your continuous studying can help you a lot in your career. Some employers also require their dental hygienist to do even more courses related to this field.

Job opportunities for the dental hygienist

Job opportunities will increase over time as more awareness related to better dental health is developing amongst people. You will see with the rise in the population, and more people will need dental health. Dental health is a field where people won’t only visit their dentists when their oral health gets bad but also go for their dental health checkups regularly.

In fact, in the dental field, the concept of dental esthetics is increasing as well. It is expected that there will be a 6 percent increase and growth in this field in the next ten years. Dentists are the leading part of dental health in society and are even now; with more awareness or demand of dental hygienists and dental assistants increasing, there is a massive flow of patients in the dental clinics. There are better clinics in the areas where people with better socioeconomic status exist, and there are more dental aesthetic procedures there.

Why should you work as a dental hygienist?

Working as a dental hygienist will give you the inner satisfaction of working in healthcare departments., most people at a very young age develop the goal of working in a medical field so they can help people achieve good health, so overall they will have personal satisfaction that they are doing good in life by helping the people. Working in the right environment and earning more you will be even more satisfied with your work. Apart from that, you will have a better salary working as a dental hygienist than in any other field. So, with a good salary, you will be earning good enough with just very little education. You can start working as a dental hygienist after a one-year course in community college, and afterward, you can get a bachelor’s degree as well, and while earning, you will be able to secure a better job. In the upcoming years, the dental hygienist field is increasing and flourishing as well, and that means there will be more opportunities for the new people joining this field, and better opportunities will be created for the people who are already in it.

Personal skills needed

Personal skills are the skills that are part of a person’s personality. Most people don’t consider it essential, but they matter a lot while applying for a job.

• Attention to detail
• Stamina
• Empathy
• X-ray skills
• Ability to read data
• Diversity in knowledge
• Positive attitude
• Good communication skills
• Ability to work without or with a team
• Ability to read the data

FAQs

What is the average salary of a dental hygienist?

The average salary of a dental hygienist is USD 75,339, and this salary may vary from state to state and from community to community.

What is the dental hygienist’s demand?

Dental hygienist’s careers are increasing, and that is why the demand is increasing even more.

What is the cost of becoming a dental hygienist?

According to Career Wiki, it will cost you approximately 22,692 USD, and this cost may vary from institute to institute. This is the average approximate of the associate degree program, and with the bachelor’s program, the cost may increase as well.

What does a dental hygienist do?

A dental hygienist mainly assists the dentist with preparing the examination room and preparing the patients. They also do some dental procedures like cleaning the teeth and emergency management as well. Counseling the patients is also one of the jobs of dental hygienists, taking x-rays, etc.