Last Updated: May 15th, 2022 by
The role of a dental hygienist is crucial in a patient’s oral health. As a dental hygienist, you’ll set the stage for the dentist by ensuring the patient’s teeth and gums are as clean and healthy as they should be. Your role is to clean the patient’s teeth while treating and preventing oral diseases.
Becoming a dental hygienist will require a degree, training, and licensing. Then, you’ll join a dentist-led team alongside other dental hygienists to work with patients. If you choose, you can use your role as a stepping stone towards becoming a full-fledged dentist.
In this guide, we’ll discover how to become a dental hygienist!
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Job Description
Before we dive into how to become a dental hygienist, let’s take a look at what this career really is and what it entails.
As a dental hygienist, you’ll be one of several hygienists working as a team under a dentist’s leadership. Your focus will be on routine parts of the patient’s treatment, which allows the dentist to focus on more complex procedures.
For example, your daily tasks will include conducting patient screenings, performing x-rays, and taking dental impressions when needed. You’ll also clean patients’ teeth and apply some treatments.
Being a dental hygienist means that you’ll work as a medical professional. So, a college education, training, and state licensing are all part of the process.
Read More: How to Become a Dentist. Learn how to become a Dentist and what the job entails.
What Does an Average Day for a Dental Hygienist Look Like?
Before you consider how to become a dental hygienist, read through an average “day in the life” to see if it’s right for you.
Here’s what your average day would look like in this role:
Screen Patients
Being a hygienist is undoubtedly a patient-facing role. So, one of your daily tasks will be to perform patient screenings. That means you’ll assess the state of their oral health and go over their patient history with them.
In doing so, you’ll help them feel comfortable when receiving treatment and oral health advice.
Take Impressions
Some of the more complex dental treatments will need to be tailor-made for the patient. For example, a dentist might have a patient needing dentures or other forms of prostheses.
Before a dentist can prepare and deliver those items, you must first take impressions of the patient’s teeth.
Perform X-Rays
X-rays are a routine aspect of dental treatment. First, you’ll guide the patient to the x-ray room and advise them on the process. Then, you’ll learn to use x-ray equipment to collect the imaging needed.
As a medical professional, understanding x-ray equipment and imagery is a valuable skill that you can take with you no matter where you work.
Consult with Patients
Despite working under the leadership of a dentist, you’re still the first contact between the clinic and the patient. So, you’ll be the one to consult with them and understand the dental issues they’re facing.
Then, you’ll also be the one to provide them with advice and guidance on improving their oral health.
Perform Cleanings and Minor Treatments
Aside from all the tasks mentioned above, a significant portion of your day will be spent cleaning patients’ teeth and applying minor treatments.
Remember: In this role, your focus is on improving the patient’s oral health and preventing diseases before they meet the dentist for more complex treatments.
Network and Attend Industry Events
Like any other healthcare industry sector, you’ll also spend part of your time attending industry events. These could be conferences, trade shows, and more.
Aside from keeping up to date with the latest trends, these events are also crucial for networking purposes.
How to Become a Dental Hygienist: Process
Learning how to become a dental hygienist is pretty straightforward and done in the same sequence. There’s little variation in the process, so you can expect to share the same experience as other dental hygienists.
Here are the stages of that process:
1. Get a Degree
The most essential requirement to become a dental hygienist is to obtain a degree.
At a minimum, you can choose to pursue an Associate’s Degree in dental hygiene. As Concorde University points out, many institutions offer 2-year courses in this field that can shorten the process towards becoming a dental hygienist.
Even though that’s 2 years faster than a Bachelor’s Degree, a Bachelor’s will be much more helpful to advance your career in the long run.
In both cases, getting your degree will include practical training hours every week as part of your coursework.
2. Sit for Written Licensing Exams
Before applying for a state license to operate, you must first sit for the National Board Dental Examination (NBDE), parts one and two. You can apply to take this test through the American Dental Association (ADA)’s website.
No matter what state you plan on getting a license from, they’ll require you to pass both parts of the NBDE first.
3. Obtain State License to Operate
With a degree in hand and having passed both parts of the NBDE, you can now apply for a state license to work as a registered dental hygienist and gain the RDH title to your name.
In most states across the US, another requirement for licensing is to sit for a clinical exam. During this exam, your knowledge of basic dental procedures will be tested to see if you qualify for the license.
4. Find a Job as a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH)
With a state license to operate, you can now begin to search for a job as a Registered Dental Hygienist at a dental clinic.
Despite the growth in jobs for this field, you can expect it to be reasonably competitive. That’s why having value-added skills and training will set you apart from the rest.
5. Pursue Further Education and Training
Getting a college degree and becoming a licensed practitioner doesn’t mean that you’re at the end of the road. On the contrary, even when you’re fully employed, you should continuously pursue more training and further education, like a Master’s Degree or a Doctorate.
These steps will help increase your overall employability and earning potential, but more importantly, they can also help you springboard towards becoming a full-fledged dentist if you choose to do so later in your career.
Are You Suited for a Dental Hygienist Career?
Now that you know how to become a dental hygienist, is the position right for you?
Here are the personality traits, skills, credentials and proficiencies you’ll need to pursue:
Personality and Skills
The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) finds that the most common traits among dental hygienists must include lots of patience and understanding. Being in a patient-facing role, you’ll also need to be a good listener to understand patients’ needs.
As a hygienist, you’ll need to be efficient when working on your feet. This job is certainly not one that keeps you tied down to a desk!
Last but not least, since a lot of your work involves the human mouth, having a good eye for detail will also go a very long way when checking and cleaning teeth.
Credentials and Proficiencies
As far as credentials are concerned, having a license to operate in your state is the most crucial of them all. Still, you’ll also need to be proficient in several areas, including having deep knowledge of dental procedures.
Along the way, you’ll learn how to use several pieces of dental equipment like x-ray machines and the tools required to treat a patient’s teeth and gums.
Even though this isn’t a desk-bound role, you’ll also need to have basic computer proficiencies. For example, patient records these days are primarily kept in digital form, so you’ll need to be familiar with basic data entry and word processing to update dental health records and reports as needed.
How to Become a Dental Hygienist and Find Work
If you’re wondering how to become a dental hygienist, you’re probably concerned with how easy it is to find work and how you’ll go about it.
When pursuing this career path, you can rest assured that there are traditional and non-traditional forms of work that you can engage in. In addition, the medical field as a whole is incredibly vast, and that’s also true when it comes to dental healthcare.
Clinical Work
The traditional route would be to seek employment at a dentistry clinic in your area.
In this position, you’ll be part of a team of hygienists led by a dentist, serving regular patients. As described earlier, your day-to-day job involves working directly with patients to improve their dental health and prevent diseases.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), most hygienists find work this way. It’s undoubtedly the first choice for most people who pursue this line of work.
Corporate Work
Your skills and knowledge are also in demand within the corporate world. For instance, dental supply companies may have openings for you in consultant and research and development roles.
Naturally, these companies will also need representatives who interact with clinics, dentists, and other hygienists. So, there are also corporate roles in sales and marketing available.
Community Dental Healthcare Work
If you’re interested in helping your community, another place to look for work is in the public health sector. Working for your state will put you in a position to help members of the community who need improved dental healthcare the most.
Academic Work
Last, but certainly not least, there’s the option of returning to academia. Here, you can become a laboratory technician, or you could become an instructor teaching the next generation of practitioners in your field.
Dental Hygienist Salaries
Now that you know how to become a dental hygienist, how to find work, and what the career consists of, how much does this career path pay?
On average, dental hygienists in the United States earn $77,090 per year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, the BLS also adds that those in the 90th percentile earn an average of $104,420 per year, while those in the lowest 10th percentile make $54,200.
While there is demand for this position across the whole country, the top 5 states where pay is the highest are:
- Alaska ($115, 050 average per year)
- California ($109,970 average per year)
- Washington ($95,450 average per year)
- District of Columbia ($94,650 average per year)
- Nevada ($89,360 average per year)
In this role, the best way to increase your earning potential is to develop specialized skills. For instance, a hygienist will earn more when patients order special treatments like branded teeth whitening or teeth straightening procedures.
As such, continuous training and exposure to the latest elective dental treatments will go a very long way in increasing your earning potential.
Dental Hygienist Job Growth
If you’re wondering how to become a dental hygienist, you’ll be happy to know that the outlook is good for this career path!
In their Occupational Outlook Handbook on this role, the BLS points out that the job growth here is expected to increase at a rate of 11% between 2020 and 2030. That’s a rate of growth they classify as being ‘faster than average’.
Top 3 Most Popular Job Paths
Here are some of the most popular job paths that you can pursue as a dental hygienist:
Dental Clinics/Dentists’ Offices
Working in a dentist’s office or dental clinic is the most popular pathway for someone in this field.
This job path is best for those seeking to work directly with patients in a clinical setting. According to the BLS, the average salary of someone taking this path is $78,320.
Read More: Read our career guide for How to Become a Sterilization Technician. This is another career path you can take in the dental health industry!
Corporate Dentistry
The corporate sector can also be advantageous for a dental hygienist. Here, the demand is high for researchers, consultants, in-house hygienists, and more. On this path, one could earn an average of $80,470 per year.
Public Health
Taking the public healthcare route means working with the community, more specifically, working with communities that need dental healthcare the most. Therefore, this path is suited to those who prefer lending their skills to improve the lives of those in need.
The BLS points out that the average salary for someone on this path is $65,970.
Read More: How to Become an Orthodontist. If you’re interested in other positions in dentistry, check out this guide to Orthodontics!
Professional Associations
American Dental Hygienist Association (ADHA)
National Dental Hygienist Association (NDHA)
State-level dental hygienist associations, such as:
New Mexico Dental Hygienists’ Association
Iowa Dental Hygienists’ Association
Indiana Dental Hygienists’ Association
Top Colleges and Universities
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
University of Southern California
Final Thoughts
By the end of this guide, you should understand how to become a dental hygienist and everything that’s involved with this career path!
Though schooling and hands-on experince is necessary, this is a great career for those looking to better the health of their community.
