Looking into a new career? The dental hygiene profession is a great career to consider. There are so many benefits and advantages to becoming and working as a dental hygienist. Many of these points personally convinced me to pursue and eventually become a dental hygienist.
The advantages of working as a dental hygienist are great pay, relatively short schooling, your choice of full-time or part-time work, no holiday, night, or very early work schedules, flexible work schedule, never bring work home, indoor work away from harsh outdoor environments, job stability, meaningful profession, and career advancement opportunities.
Of course, there are exceptions to all these points but they are extremely rare in my experience. Here is an in-depth look at all these points.
1. Great Pay
Dental hygienists get paid a living wage, anywhere from $35 to $60 per hour depending on the state you reside in. If you want to know how much you can expect to be paid in your area or state please check out this article.
Good pay is such an important factor when choosing a career. You want to make sure you can support yourself and your family while also ensuring you don’t get burned out or spend too much time away from your loved ones.
2. Short Schooling
If you start from zero college credits it will take about 4 years to complete your dental hygiene degree.
The dental hygiene program itself lasts anywhere from 21 to 24 months, but the majority of the programs have a list of prerequisite classes you must take before you are eligible to apply. Those prerequisite classes like biology, anatomy and physiology, English, etc, can take up to two years to complete.
It was quicker for me since I went to a high school that gave me college credits. If you have that option, take it. It will save you a ton of time.
3. Full-time or Part-time Work
You can easily find full-time or part-time work hours as a dental hygienist.
I personally wanted a career that was part-time, two to three days a week, in order to pursue my other interests. Many private dental offices want part-time hygienists and will often close one weekday per week.
For those that want a full-time work schedule you may have to work for a couple different offices. Or pick up some temp, or substitute, work. But you can get your 40 hours per week if that is what you want/need.
4. No holiday, night, or very early work schedules
As a dental hygienist you will never have to work on a holiday, never have to work a night shift, and never have to wake up at 3am to clock in at 5am. 🙂
The earliest I have seen a dental office open has been at 7am to accommodate those patients that want to come in before their workday begins. I more often see offices that close late, up to 8pm in the evening, but it is usually only one weekday that they do this and they start later in the morning on that day as well. It is also not uncommon to see offices that open on Saturdays.
5. Flexible work schedule
If you work as a temp dental hygienist like I do, you will have an extremely flexible schedule. What I mean by that is that I can work when I want to work and I can take off when I want to take off.
As a temp hygienist I can pick as much work or as little work as I want through temping agencies and apps like CloudDentistry and TempMee. If I want to take a day off or a few days off I just decline the work offers or block out my calendar to make myself unavailable those days.
If, though, you work permanently at an office, this type of flexibility will not be there. The majority of dental offices have “hygiene days” they schedule and they depend on you coming in to work those days. So just switching your schedule around for your convenience will not work.
6. Never have to bring work home
It is not possible to bring your work home as a dental hygienist! Hooray!
Cleaning teeth, taking x-rays and scraping gums just wouldn’t work from home.
The few exceptions that I can imagine are if you own your own dental hygiene business (it is possible in a few states), or if you have additional administrative responsibilities in your office (make sure you get paid more the more responsibilities you take on!).
Not taking work home was a selling point for me personally. My parents had a small business that provided well for us growing up but I always saw how they were on-call and I never did like that. So, the dental hygiene profession really appealed to me for that reason. Once work is done it is done.
ONCE WORK IS DONE IT IS DONE.
7. Indoor work away from harsh outdoor environments
Dental hygienists work indoors in air-conditioned or heated offices or office buildings.
For some of you this may be a no-brainer but this is a great advantage of this profession. Think about all the jobs and professions that have to be done outdoors. I am highly grateful that I can work in a building that was once labored by a person that needed to work under the scorching sun or in the cutting cold.
Thank you outdoor workers!
8. Job Stability
There is a great demand for dental hygienists and it is a well-established profession. With over 100 years of existence, the dental hygiene profession is here to stay.
You can easily find work upon graduating as a dental hygienist, unlike other professions or degrees. And since AI has become a hot topic these days I wrote an article exploring the improbability of AI replacing hygienists. So you can rest easy knowing that the dental hygiene profession will be there once you finish your schooling or retire.
9. Meaningful profession
The dental hygiene profession is good, honest, and purposeful work. You get to help people either maintain their dental health or, even better, recover their dental health.
As a dental hygienist you will see your fair share of wrecked teeth and gums and knowing how much you can turn their health around within a couple visits is SO SATISFYING!
Now, let’s be honest here. There will be times when you see healthy teeth and gums after healthy teeth and gums. This is when it can get a little monotonous. But! When you do get to work on that one patient, it is the little hit that keeps you going.
10. Career growth opportunities
Depending on the state that you live in, there are career growth/expansion opportunities of varying degrees.
The majority of hygienists choose to work in private dental offices. But a few will go into public health and work with the city. Others will go on to use their expertise and become sales reps for a dental product company.
Still others will take on a couple extra years of schooling and become an Advanced Dental Hygiene Practitioner (ADHP) or an Advanced Dental Therapist (ADT) which will allow them to drill and fill certain cavities and pull select teeth in addition to regular dental hygienist duties.
“[…] THE BENEFITS GAINED SHOULD EXCEED THE COSTS INCURRED”
-HENDRITH VANLON SMITH JR (CEO OF MAYFLOWER-PLYMOUTH)
The Bright Side
There are many more benefits and advantages to consider about the dental hygiene profession. But these are the main points I believe the majority of people prioritize. Of course, the list of priorities will vary from person to person.
Yet, in order to determine whether this career is right for you will need to see to other side of the profession. Some of the challenges or minuses of working as a dental hygienists. Please take a look at a whole article I wrote on the challenges and tips on how to overcome them.
