Hygienist
Admittedly squeamish about blood and body functions as a child, HH’s parents doubted she would succeed in a career which required working inside people’s mouths.
DENTAL HYGIENIST CONTRASTED WITH DENTAL ASSISTANT
A dental assistant is often – depending on the specific needs of each dental office – the primary point of office contact for patients, managing patient records, scheduling appointments, taking X-rays, and helping the dentist during procedures. Typical daily tasks (not every task, every day), include sterilizing instruments, taking dental impressions, and instructing patients on proper oral care.
Dental hygienists work with and sometimes alongside dentists to help patients maintain good oral health. The hygienist performs routine oral cleanings, offers preventative options, and helps dentists tackle various health issues pertaining to patients’ mouths, teeth and gums. Typical daily activities include using appropriate dental instruments to perform routine cleanings, removing plaque, tartar and stains from a patient’s teeth, cleaning, sterilizing and organizing dental instruments, reviewing and maintaining a patient’s medical history, taking dental X-rays, inspecting the mouth for signs of oral cancer, checking the gums for signs of gum disease, providing any findings to the dentist for diagnosis, educating patients and assisting dentists with more complicated procedures like administering anesthesia or removing mouth stitches.
The above noted general descriptions of daily tasks are of course subject to licensing requirements, the experience and skills required and the needs and practices within the specific dental office which employs the assistant or the hygienist.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
JJ is the youngest of three children, all girls. Her father was a ‘blue collar’ worker as a construction foreman. Her mother was a homemaker.
CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES RELEVANT TO ADULT CAREER
Between 7th and 10th grades, HH wore braces on her teeth, requiring periodic adjustments in dental offices so she became very familiar with the various types of jobs there and thought she would like to follow one of those career paths as an adult. She would work hard to learn the necessary skills and she would be especially calm and reassuring to young patients.
EDUCATION
In addition to the basic, required science-related courses in her public school system, HH chose to enroll in other science related courses which might add to her knowledge to qualify to work in a dentist’s office. However, her father was ‘old school’ and insisted that HH prepare for a career involving office work by enrolling in the high school’s typing and shorthand classes.
When HH mentioned to a dental hygienist that she wanted to become a dental assistant eventually, the hygienist advised her to become a hygienist “because it’s more interesting and higher earning than merely handing dental equipment to the dentist all day.”
Following her high school graduation, HH enrolled in a community college offering courses to prepare for passing the licensing exam required to commence a career as a dental hygienist.
Perhaps motivated by her parents’ prediction that HH would not succeed as a hygienist because she had been squeamish around blood as a child, HH was determined to be brave as she overcame her childhood anxieties.
CAREER REQUIREMENTS
All dental hygienists must first earn at least an Associate’s degree in dental hygiene, available at community colleges and vocational / technical schools, as well as some colleges and universities. It generally takes about three years to complete a dental hygiene program with courses such as classroom lectures, lab work and clinical practice. Students study anatomy, medical ethics, periodontics, nutrition, pathology, radiology, and patient management.
After earning an Associate’s degree, the aspiring dental hygienist must pass the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination – a test of approximately 350 questions, including both discipline-based and case-based items.
The final qualification step is to pass a state or regional clinical board exam.
As a practical matter, to succeed as a dental hygienist working with both dental professionals and nervous patients, the hygienist will need the following skills:
- Critical thinking and problem solving – every mouth is different so each patient’s plan of action must be customized.
- Communication skills – among patients, dentists, office staff and patient families.
- Detail oriented – Close attention is required for each patient.
- Dexterity – Much of the job of the hygienist involves standing for long periods of time, bent over while working with your hands, using precision, and handling dental instruments in a small space.
- Leave your youthful squeamishness behind! Get used to infected and bloody gums, food particles and plaque dislodged during your cleaning and patients who unexpectedly cough in your face.
GETTING STARTED
Options to find your first hygienist’s job include leads from your school’s career center and any network you have established, such as with your personal dentist or through an internship.
Any type of internship in a dental office is highly recommended as an initial experience and possibly an eventual network connection to land a job.
After working for a year at each of two different dental offices without much professional interaction among the staff, HH continued to review ‘Help Wanted’ ads within professional publications. She interviewed for her current position on the recommendation of a friend who knew the head dentist to be kind and caring to patients as well as staff. Having accepted the offer, HH has enjoyed how the staff works together to assist each other and benefit the patients, without recommending unnecessary procedures to merely add profitability to the dentist’s accounting records.
CHALLENGES
Over the years, HH has experienced many types of career challenges which she learned to cope with through situation appropriate strategies:
- Action – e.g., issuing instructions or gentle head / mouth manipulation to persuade the patient’s cooperation to open their mouth wider or turn their head.
- Intentional ignoring – e.g., not responding to bad jobs and/or to patient comments unrelated to dental procedures such as politics and personal privacy issues.
- Professional advice – e.g., “You need to floss more regularly” and sometimes: “No, I won’t stay in the room when x-raying your teeth because the momentary x-rays you aboard are not harmful to your health but constant, daily exposure to x-rays is a known risk to anyone’s health.”
CAREER SATISFACTION
Aside from money earned, HH appreciates being complimented by the dentist for doing a good professional job and by many patients for a pain free experience. HH is also glad to note when her advice to floss and brush regularly is obviously rewarded by the patient’s need for only routine teeth cleaning.
