Dental Hygienist, Dental Hygiene Schools, Training, Jobs, and Careers

What is a Dental Hygienist?
Dental hygienists work closely with dentists. They help dentists provide patients good oral hygiene. It is a career that involves working with your hand and mind in other to help patients prevent dental disease. In a typical work day, a hygienist may be involved in some or all of the following:

1. Assessing a patient’s oral health condition
2. Taking a patient’s blood pressure
3. Taking a patient’s pulse
4. Taking and developing dental x-ray
5. Taking a patient’s oral health history
6. Removing plaque and calculus from patients’ teeth
7. Taking oral cancer screening from patients
8. Teaching proper brushing and flossing techniques
9. Counseling patients on proper nutrition for good oral health
10. Etc.

Dental hygienists must enjoy working with people. It is hard to be that close to somebody’s teeth if you don’t enjoy people. You can only fake it for so long.

How to Become a Dental Hygienist:
To become a dental hygienist, you must first of all have a high school diploma or GED. You should try to take courses in biology, chemistry, algebra, etc. After you meet the above requirement, you then need to apply to a dental hygiene school.

Most schools will admit you straight out of high school. But, you do have schools that require you complete one year of college before they admit you.

After being admitted into a dental hygiene program, you should expect to take some exciting courses in the field of dental hygiene. Examples of courses are:

a. Introduction to Dental Hygiene
b. Radiography
c. Dental Materials
d. Periodontology
e. Pathology
f. Pharmacology
g. Clinical Dental Hygiene
h. Etc.

To practice, you will need to pass both written and clinical certification examinations. These exams are administered by the American Dental Association’s Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations.

Dental Hygienist Salary:
Dental hygienists make good pay. The average salary is $58,000 per year. We have seen salaries as high as $77,000 per year. This will depend on your location, experience, and level of responsibility.

Dental Hygienist School:
We have found 2 places that offer the dental hygiene program. One of them is all healthcare website. There, you will schools that offer dental hygiene program online and on campus. You need to check them out and request for free information. You can do so by going there through this link.

The other school is Baker College. Baker College has 4 campuses and also has an online option. Check them out. You can also do it by clicking this link.



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