Anyone a Dental Hygienist? What do you Love/Hate About it?

Thinking about this career field, I'm very picky about my work and do want to be in health care. Nursing is not for me. Why or Why Not should I consider this career?

Anyone a Dental Hygienist? What do you Love/Hate About it?
I was a Dental Assistant for many years before finially deciding on Dental Hygiene.


There are pros and cons.


The pros:


--- GREAT money. In my state (MIssouri) the range is $25-35 an hour. If you have kids you can work part time. I only work 2 days a week and still get a pretty good pay check.


----You get to work one on one with patients. What I like is the patient education. Teaching people how to care for their teeth and many after your training come back next time with a healthier mouth is rewarding to me. You also get to meet interesting people. So you must be outgoing to be a Dental Hygienist in my opinion.


---It's very interesting. In my state we can give injections, do scaling and root planing and place medicaments where needed. I find this very interesting.


The cons;


-----Little to no benefits. It's hard to find DR's who'll give benefits. Some DR's when you have a patient cancel at the beginning or end of the day send you home-no work, no pay.


-----Many Hygienists get burn out after about 5 years. Some say the DR pushes them to do more patients in less time and this gets frustrating. I was burned out until I went part time. I couldn't do this more that 20 hours a week and still love it. It's tempting to work more cause the money.


---the schooling is VERY HARD. You can get an associate degree with about 3 years education. LOTS of science, anatomy ect. Then you have to take a national exam 1 day, a clinical exam another day (you have to find a certain kind of patient on your own) and a practical exam. LOTS of STRESS!!!


---there is always a chance your state will change the law and allow minimal training to be a dental Hygienist. This has happened in 2 states that I know-Kansas and Mississippi. The only thing that happened right away was salaries went down $5 an hour!


In my opinion if you think you can work part time then Dental Hygiene is a wonderful, fulfilling, respected profession.


Jeanmarie RDH