Dental Hygenists: Do you think its hard becoming a dental hygenists, and what do you normally do every day

Question

Im wanting to become a denal hygenists and dont know if the courses will be to hard for me or not.

Answer 1

I am an RDH in Idaho. Different states have different standards on what procedures a dental hygienist can do.

In many states, a dental hygienist can give local anesthesia and you need to pass an anesthesia clinical exam in addition to the practical clinical exam and NDHBE national written exam. There are several regions and each region governs the examination requirements. For example, Idaho is under the WREB (Western Region Examination Board) for dentists & hygienists. A good place to start is the American Dental Hygienist Association website www.adha.org and search under Education and look for schools in your area.

In answering your questions: it is not easy to become a dental hygienist. At least with my experience, places in dental hygiene programs are limited and competitive to get into. The coursework can be difficult, being good at science helps but if you are dedicated and determined you can study and learn the curriculum. See what your school requires as pre-requisites but I would enroll in some college courses such as Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, Microbiology, Chemistry, Psychology. English, and Nutrition as chances are most programs will require this either as a pre-req or as part of the course of study. Make sure your school is accredited. Contact a few dental offices in your area and ask if you could job-shadow the hygienist, or even volunteer a few hours per week to go in and sterilize instruments - becoming familiar with dental terminology and practices is a big help and the volunteer hours will look good on your hygiene school application not to mention giving you a better idea what the career is about. Dental Hygiene is challenging - you have to work hard throughout school and the exams can be tough but it is a well-respected, rewarding profession.

In a typical day I review a patient's health history and take their blood pressure, take x-rays, do periodontal probing where I measure the depths of the gum pockets around the teeth, educate the patient on good oral hygiene habits, scale the teeth with hand instrumentation and using an ultrasonic/piezo device, polish, floss, along with the dentist determine if a patient requires further periodontal or dental  treatment, sterilize instruments (some offices don't require the RDH to do this but it's nice to help out the team), do sealants, and fluoride varnishes/treatments and schedule patients. I also do non-surgical periodontal therapy - SRP (scaling & root planing), giving local anesthesia to patients then cleaning deep under the gums - there is a fair amount of bleeding, plaque, hard calcified tartar and sometimes pus (exudate) involved with this so if you are super-squeamish you should be aware of this before considering hygiene as a career.

Another website I like is www.andyfuturerdh.com which offers really good practical advice for all hygiene students and students-to-be.

Good luck!