Is a career in Dental Hygiene what it's cracked up to be?

I am a pre-dental hygiene student and recently was told that jobs are getting very difficult to find (unless you only want to work only 2 days a week) and that the lifespan of the career is not very long. Additionally she told me that the great pay was basically to offset the out of pocket insurance costs and limited hours.... I am starting to get concerned that this is perhaps not the stable career that I thought it was when I started school. Was the person I spoke to representing "the norm"? Or just disgruntled??

I am a dental hygienist in Idaho, and I love my job.
A lot of dentists don't advertise employment in the newspaper. I think this is for a couple of reasons: First, the dental community is small. Any time a job opens, every hygienist within a 100 mile radius knows about it... so dentists usually have a pretty good response without having to place any sort of ad. Second, I think for the most part, hygiene is a very stable job. Once you find a good job, you keep it. So, sometimes, it is pretty difficult to find employment if you're not already working. A great thing about hygiene is that it is okay to work at more than one office. So, even though some offices may only offer 2 days a week, it's pretty easy to find 2 or 3 days a week at another office. Or, you can sub at pretty much any office. So, basically you can choose your own hours... which is great if you have a family. When you get your license, you can sign up for the state association which will sometimes put your name on a list to be called for fill-in.
The pay is excellent, and you can find offices that provide benefits. My office offers insurance, but a friend of mine works for an office where the dentist gives her a $250 bonus every month to cover insurance costs (or whatever she wants to do with it...)
As far as career lifespan, you learn in school what you have to do to be able to practice indefinitely. You need to focus on your posture at all times, make sure your back muscles and your forearm muscles are strong and be very careful with how you move your writst when working.
Hygienists will ALWAYS be in demand. And, like someone said above, there are always opportunities internationally. Traveling hygienists make good money and are able to see the world. Beyond that, there are a lot of opportunities outside of a clinical setting. You can be an educator, work for a dental sales company, or do community dental health care by working with Head Start programs or health and welfare. The possibilities are endless.
Good luck! It's totally worthwhile, and I have to say that I chose the perfect profession!

You can do that part time, and maybe be like a substitute teacher :)

You may want to look at working overseas. The demand in the US fluctuates, but the want is still very strong. If you want to feel absolutely wanted, then work overseas - they are desperate for Dental Hygienists there.

Dental hygiene is one of the best professions, in my opinion: you set your own hours, the pay is good, there are no after hours obligations, allows for a family life, etc.......

BUT, to a great degree, these are dependent of where/which state you have your hygiene certificate/ license. In the WREB, Western Regional Board states, for example AZ, TX, etc, hygienist do very well.


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Depends where you live!

I've heard demand in, say, Michigan is not so good. Here in New Hampshire we had such a hard time luring hygienists up here from the schools in Massachusetts, we had to expand the only tech school in the state by 50% just to meet NH dentists' demand. Those folks get out of school and start at around 30/hr.

Some dentists offer insurance and others don't. You will find, however, that health insurance and related perks are decreased or going away in almost ANY field nowadays... This is not the 50s, Americans have like 11 jobs in their adult life (on average) and the traditional bennies are costing employers too much.

As far as income with a professional work environment as a function of the education required, you really can't do much better than RDH.

As far as lifespan of the job, well, just make sure your posture is sound, ergonomically! Let me know if you have any further questions!

RDH is a great job to have if you can find one. I live in Minnesota and I'm a dental assistant. There are no hygiene jobs at all! I look in the paper every week. I've thought about going back to school but there is such an overload here. There used to be a huge shortage and more schools started offering the program and now there are too many. You are right, the jobs that are out there are only part time and usually don't offer benefits. I work for a large organization and the last time they hired an outside hygienist was 10 years ago. All the new ones they have are assistants that were employed with them and went back to school. It may be different in other areas of the country though. It is a great job to have if you can find a job! Good luck.

Dental hygiene is a good career, it pays well and if you find the right office you can have a long career. I've been a hygienist for 12 years and I have been full time at my office for 11 years. Yes there is a shortage in some states. I live in Michigan and there is a shortage here--I've been looking for a part time Saturday job and can't find one. My friend is a hygienist as well and she lives in California, she said that they need hygienists there. So it depends on which states have a demand for hygienists. Do your research and see what is available. Another option is nursing. If your in pre hygiene classes a lot of times they are the same as the pre nursing classes. Good luck!