Dental hygienist?

I live in Arkansas and Im sure nobody on here knows about the specific state but ive tried to look on job search websites and theres no jobs. However, on UAMS (university of ark. for med. sciences) it says an rdh starts out in ark at 50000 a year with a 4 day work week. apparently only 25 are accepted every year. Does this sound like they are in demand or not?

Dental hygienist?
I think the previous poster is confused with a dental assistant. They on average will make 12-16 per hour depending on the area. Hygenists on average will make around 28-34 per hour.





This truely depends on the area that you live in. Where I am at, they are in demand and heavily recruited once they hit their last year in the hygienists program. Full-time, part-time- you name it. If you read the articles that are posted on MSN and Yahoo you will see that they are always referencing the health services careers and in particular dental hygiene.





Since I am interested in this field, I did some checking into information. What I found out is that most schools that offer the programs are very competitive in nature. They limit the number of students that enroll to keep the quality of education high.





Where I live, we have 5 schools that offer the program in the state. Only one is close enough for me to attend. They will recieve over 150 applications for only 32 spaces. The fact that your school only accepts 25 is considered normal.





A full time hygienist in my area will work 4 days- full-time. When I inquired about the ability to find work I found out that most dentists will either contact the school directly, or look to hire by word of mouth. They work within a smaller and specialized circle and will only look to find hygienists through websites and newspapers as a last resort. One of the instructors for the program that I am applying to is a part owner in a dental placement service. If she likes your work she will forward your information onto the service.





If this is any help- out of the 5 people that I know who have graduated in the last 6 years, all have found employment and enjoy what they are doing. My brother sister in law has been working for over 5 years now and is making in the six figure range. The office she works in pays bonuses for consecutive months of service since turnover has been a problem- she also gets 6 weeks paid vacation, health insurance, free dental and a pension.





While her situation is probably on the higher end, the others all said that they cannot complain and would not change thier decision.





Good Luck.
Reply:Here in ND, there are so many hygienist's and not enough jobs. I think there is an over abundance of them.





Depending on where you work at, sure some only work a couple days a week. But the ones I know, none of them get insurance benefits because they only work a few days a week. Part of the reason why they may make 15-20 an hour.